Address—Don Rule
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Begin this afternoon by.
Singing the first hymn in the hymn book #1.
Before we start singing it, I'll make the comment.
That.
We're going to.
Spend some time looking at gifts.
As they're presented to us in God's Word. And so as you sing number one, you can pay attention.
You should be able to find 2 gifts at least that you're going to sing about in #1 so that'll keep your mind on the song as you sing it to make sure you can recognize 2 gifts that we sing about in number one, we need somebody to start it.
Here's thy love bestows.
Thou giver.
Of all good.
Not having itself.
A richer nose.
Than the Redeemer's blood turn with me to the Epistle of James.
Chapter One.
James chapter one and verse 17 every good.
Gift.
And every perfect gift.
Is from above.
And cometh down from the father of lights, with whom is no variableness.
Neither shadow of turning.
All of us.
I'm sure have received gifts.
Most of us that were not young anymore can remember the day when we were young.
And there was one day of the year particularly that we tended to look forward to.
That day called birthday because we associated that day.
With the receiving of gifts.
And.
Also, it was generally connected with or at least in people I knew and our family. Very often as that day other members of the family that might not be living in the household or close friends and so on would come together for that occasion and we would have the enjoyment of fellowship together and.
We got gifts.
Here it says.
Every good gift.
And every perfect gift cometh from above.
I got some gifts as a child that weren't always didn't turn out.
To be what I thought they would be, they were sometimes a disappointment to me.
There were times when I wanted a certain gift and I didn't get it and so I was disappointed.
And.
I had a child and I'm going back to childhood. I had a child's view of what was worth.
Being a gift.
I can say thankfully.
The view I had as a child isn't the same view I have this afternoon, but there was a process of learning.
And to try to illustrate what I'm saying.
In contrast to God as a giver.
Is I was born and raised in the city of Columbus, OH.
And in that city?
Was a store that my mother went to.
From time to time and as a child.
Hey, Mom's got to take you with her when she's got to do things. And so we went to the store.
Called Lazarus Store. Lazarus store was.
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Probably the biggest store that I've ever been in of its type.
Then lots of stores since, but I don't remember being in a store that was bigger.
Then the Lazarus store. For what it did, it was a block square.
How many times you've been in a store a block square?
It was six stories high.
And Ohio, The best part of the store was.
Half of the 4th floor.
The toy department.
Oh, it was a wonderful place for a child to find treasure.
It attracted me. I can remember one time as a boy when I was in the store with my mother and she was in, I don't know the part, clothing part of it. That was no treasure to me. I didn't have any interest in the clothes. And so while she was looking for clothes, I decided to go to the better part of the store. And so I just wandered off and.
Went up the escalator the wrong way.
Which was fun for a kid and got to the 4th floor and.
I was in my world, the world of treasure, the place where you looked for your gift.
If you had any choice later at birthday time to say this is what I want.
And so that was my mom. Didn't have a problem finding me though.
She knew where I was, she knew where my treasure was, and so she found me.
And I got some instruction about not leaving her in future occasions.
But there's another side that I want to give, because later on I want to make some moral application about it.
This is a lesson that I had to learn as a child that was extremely valuable but extremely difficult for me at that point in my life. And I'm not going to tell much of it, but just a tiny outline of it, the story. Some here have heard it innumerable times from me, probably.
There was another day when my mother and I went into Siler's store.
And she was shopping and.
I saw something.
I wanted.
Two rolls of Scotch tape.
Why I wanted them I have no idea, but they attracted me and I wanted them badly.
And I didn't have any money. I was a boy. And I went to my mother and I said mother.
Can I have these? And I had them in my hand, 2 rolls of Scotch tape. And she looked at me with kind of a puzzled look on her face, I think. And no, not today.
And so she.
You said, you basically said put them back on the shelf. I didn't. I put them in my pocket.
We went home.
And in the truth of scripture, be sure your sin will find you out.
As a little boy I immediately my conscience bothered me when we got home and so I had to hide what I had done.
Then I put it under the bed in a couple days Mother when mother was dusting and went the dust mop and out came the Scotch tape.
Every good and every perfect gift cometh from above, from the father of lights. I'll give one more illustration to introduce the thought. My brother-in-law, Danny, when he was a boy, he was with his father in a shop that sold sporting goods and there was something there he liked and he went to his dad and he said, Daddy, can I have this?
And he his father's response was not today, son.
And so he was very disappointed because his father hadn't given him the gift that he so badly wanted in that store.
His birthday was less than a week later, and on his birthday, his father had already purchased for him a similar item that was worth at least three times what he wanted.
We all grow up with desires for things.
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Some of which as young people we aspire to even as children. But in the verse that we started with, the points I'd like to draw out of it is.
Every good gift. God knows what's good for us.
God knows how to give it to us.
And he knows how to give it to us.
With what I'm going to call, no strings attached, that is, without.
Us having I will give you this if you.
Will accept that.
Satan is the very opposite. He always has strings attached to what he wants to give you. He wants to put before you and I something that we would desire, and if someone would give it to us or if we can acquire it to ourselves, we're going to treat it as a treasure.
And very often there's serious consequence of it.
But as we will see, the gifts of God are wonderful.
And it's from a Father of lights. It's from a God who absolutely, perfectly understands us.
And knows exactly what's good for us and what will satisfy.
Sometimes we do get nice gifts. We enjoy them.
But they don't last.
They have their day and then they're done.
One of the things I hope that you will take away with us, that will be a joy to our hearts is stop and think about gifts you've given, been given.
And recognize that very often the giver is more important to you than the gift.
The giver is very often and ultimately more important to you than the gift.
I have things that I've had for most of my life.
That were gifts and why do I still keep them? Why do I still have them?
Is it because they and themselves have a lot of value? No, it's because I treasure.
The person that gave them to me.
Okay.
Must turn to Romans Chapter 11.
And.
And verse I want to connect.
What I believe was of the Spirit of God's purpose for us yesterday afternoon at this time.
The calling of God, the heavenly calling of God. And I just want to connect it with gifts.
And so here in Romans Chapter 11.
And verse 29 we have the two points together in one verse.
For the gifts and calling of God.
Are without repentance.
God has called us to a heavenly calling.
As we had it brought before us yesterday.
Is he going to change his mind? That's what repentance involves. A change of mind is going to say, yeah, got a better plan or that one wasn't going to work out, so we're going to do something else or I'll just forget the whole idea.
No, when God purposes something.
He always carries it out because he is a Father of lights who knows when he forms, upon what the end result will be in good. And so the gifts, the calling of the heavenly calling.
It will never change and it's going to be realized.
It likewise here.
In the same verse it says the gifts of God are without repentance.
God is the ultimate giver.
He's the only one that can give things that will last for eternity.
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You've never given anybody a gift that's going to last forever.
You don't have the capacity to do that. You can give lovely and wonderful gifts to others.
But you can't give them something that is going to in itself last beyond this life. But God is the ultimate giver and He gives. And so He's giving us as we are going to enjoy just a few of them. In fact, a very small number of the gifts that God has given in my heart to focus on. But it is that.
Which God knows will satisfy your heart forever.
Forever.
That's the character of the giving of God.
OK, let's turn over to 1St Corinthians the next verse, chapter 12.
Just a piece here of something that we'll see more fully later, perhaps First Corinthians chapter 12.
And verse 31.
I'm going to read it and Mr. Darby's translation, but desire earnestly the greater gifts.
And yet show unto you a way of more suppressing excellence.
This particular chapter has to do with and we're not going to spend any time on it. It's not the focus of my heart.
This chapter 12 has to do with God giving spiritual gifts to His children for the blessing and benefit of the assembly and for the presentation of the gospel to the lost. And so God has given various gifts. Everybody in this room has some of these gifts that has been given, one or more of them that have been given to you to be used.
And so on.
But he says, and this is the point of it that I want to emphasize, it says.
And yet show unto you a more excellent way.
What's better than the gifts God's going to give you to use or has given you to use?
For the blessing of others and good in the assembly and in the world.
He then immediately takes up the 13th chapter, which is about love.
The way of Love.
Is greater.
Than gift.
In itself and the way it can be used.
Again, what is it that attaches to a gift that gives it its value?
It's the giver, and not only the giver, but it's what's in the heart of the giver.
Before God ever created the world, He purposed that you would come to know His heart.
God is love.
And to know the heart of God and some of the gifts that are given to us are given for that very purpose, that we might be given the capacity.
To enter in to the heart of our God.
Our giver. There's a more excellent way, and if the Lord has given you and he has something to do for himself, don't ever.
Disassociated from the use of it.
With the same spirit in which God gives, and that's love.
That's slope.
I'll make one other comment that comes to mind at this point, and that's this.
I can remember.
Having to be taught corrected a little boy.
I'd open my present.
Oh wow, and I was already.
To enjoy it, to play with it.
And my mother and my dad would have to say Donald.
Thank Judy, thank Alan, thank Grandma or whomever had given it to me.
You know, we can sometimes get so occupied with, we call it blessing, we call it benefit, we call it gift, then it's all true. And yet we're so occupied with the thing that's been given.
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That we don't turn around and fulfill what love the better way would say. And that is thank you giver.
Thank you, giver.
So that's as important in its own way as well. OK, let's turn over to.
Romans.
Chapter 5.
Romans, chapter 5.
We'll read a few verses, starting with.
Verse 12.
Wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.
So death passed upon all men for that.
All have sinned.
Verse 14. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses.
Even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who was the figure of him that was to come?
But not as the offence. So also is the free gift.
Where if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many.
And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift.
For the judgment was by 1 to condemnation, but the free gift.
Is of many offenses unto justification.
Where if by one man's offense death reigned by 1 so much more, they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by 1 Jesus Christ.
We don't have time to examine what we've just read in much detail, but there are a couple of points to be brought out of it this afternoon.
Where all the have a common ancestor.
A man named Adam.
And this world very often at the time when a baby is born.
Talks about something even the world understands called the gift of life.
We all received.
The gift of life.
Through our parents.
I hope we're here, thankful we have it.
Without to use the word strings attached, it came with a string attached.
We got the gift of life.
But it was defective.
Had a defect in it.
Probably most of the adults here at one time or another have gone somewhere and bought something.
Took it home, examined it and decided it was defective.
So you wanted to take it back and get it replaced with one that was properly manufactured, if you will?
Adam.
Perfect.
When God created him, his wife Eve was perfect.
When God created her and gave her with him the gift of life.
But he misused the gift.
And became a sinful man.
And he passed on that sinfulness to his children.
And down through the human race.
So we all have the gift of life, we're born with it, but in its very character, it's presently in a state that we would, I would call defective.
In the way I want to apply it.
Here.
Gods and what were just read is a process that God has gone through.
To take care of the defect and bring something better than Adam had as a result of it.
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One man, as we read, sin came into the world.
And the consequence of it was death.
Serious, isn't it that the day I was born, I started to die?
I got the gift of life, but the very day I got it, I started to die.
Because I had within me that thing called sin, a sinful nature that cannot stand in God's presence and His holy being.
So here he's making an important point as to the matter of the gift of righteousness, which he's talking about.
He's saying one man sinned and everybody was affected by it.
Every single person in this room has been affected by what Adam and Eve did.
And you've been affected by it from the day you were born.
Because it's passed on from one man to everybody else.
By contrast, from that we have introduced here a person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
One man who has done something for the blessing and benefit of everyone of us.
And what is it?
He has done a work.
That God may give us the gift.
A righteousness.
That we may stand before God.
Not defective.
But righteous?
It's a good gift to have, isn't it?
Who could give you that gift? What God through his Son?
I can't give it to you. You can't give it to me.
Good perfect gifts originated with God, and this is one.
That has a benefit that lasts forever.
It's not going to be lost.
When you leave this world, sooner or later, one way or another.
It's yours.
Have you thanked the giver?
The trust you have.
Nice, thank him every day.
It's a wonderful gift you've never received from any person in this life.
A gift that equals that one.
You've never given it, you've never received it, but here is a giver in love to your soul that has given you the gift of righteousness.
That.
You're going to have to enjoy forever.
We should be thankful people, shouldn't we? For once we've been given.
OK.
Turn over to the next chapter.
Chapter 6.
And verse 23.
The gift, the wages of sin, is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The gift of God is eternal life.
I've given gifts in my life.
You've given gifts in your life.
Some of them.
Cost you a little bit.
Some of them may have cost you quite a bit more.
Do you ever give a gift like this?
What did it cost God to give this gift?
The gift of eternal life.
You can't measure the cost.
The more excellent way of love.
Said I'm going to give it.
The one who had to pay the price.
Said I'm willing send me.
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I'll pay it.
And so now we have the gift.
God.
Through his son.
I and the lad will go Yonder.
They went Yonder.
Into three hours of darkness.
And the price was paid.
It can't be purchased. What could you offer?
For such a gift.
You couldn't imagine giving it.
The gift of God.
Is eternal life.
God's a good giver.
The gift of God, Eternal life.
Let's turn over to Chapter 8.
And verse 2.
For the law of the spirit of life.
In Christ Jesus.
Hath made me free.
From the law of sin.
And death.
I want to connect this with the gift of eternal life. It's going to take a little bit of explanation.
But I think it helps us to appreciate the gift.
Adam received the gift of life.
And passed it on.
In the way that God gives conception.
When an Old Testament St.
Put their trust in the.
Whatever testimony God gave to them in the matter, when they believed God.
They received a life that they had not been born with.
A new life.
The life they received.
Was a wonderful life. They'll be in heaven with us.
But in connection with the gift of life, a new life being born anew.
In John's Gospel.
The Lord Jesus said I am come.
That they might have life.
And that they might have it more abundantly.
When the Lord Jesus rose from the dead.
He brought when.
Mary.
Met him at the tomb. I'm going to put it this way. He couldn't wait. The first message he wanted to communicate in resurrection life, his own resurrection life.
He said, I ascend unto my father.
And your father?
To my God and your God as a man who walked through this world, He walked through it with a conscious enjoyment of God as his Father, even as a man.
He was eternally the Son, but.
He wanted her to have the message of a more abundant life.
A life in which.
See and the others.
And you and I would be brought into a relationship with God as Father, and we as his sons and daughters, His children.
That's more abundant than Adam, trustee. I'll see him in glory, but Abraham and Moses and others ever knew.
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Dead life, but they didn't have it in its resurrection character.
They didn't have it more abundantly.
That's part of the gift.
Eternal life.
But in the verse we read in chapter 8, there's more.
There's more.
To the life.
And the gift of eternal life, it says.
The spirit of life.
In Christ Jesus.
The spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
What's the nature?
Of the eternal life that you profess and know you possess.
Is it a new life that yours? Yes, it's yours.
But in reality, what is that life?
It's the life.
Of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's tremendous to grasp. I don't know that we can grasp it.
But the life you have.
Christ, who is our life.
God in the gift that He's given in this eternal life, as He says, I am giving to you to share the very life of my Son in resurrection.
It wasn't communicated in that character until resurrection.
What kind of a life does he have in resurrection?
A life that death can't touch.
That's the gift.
A life that can't ever, ever face death.
It's already been through it here. That is, he was through it as a man.
And associated with it is to bring you into that state of immortality.
That is a state where you're not even subject to death again, or ever.
The power.
What was the power that raised him from the dead as a man?
The Son of God, he could raise himself, but as man.
He was raised by the Spirit of God.
God gives you a life, His life, but he couples it.
With the Spirit of God indwelling you.
That's part of the gift.
It's a wonderful gift.
That the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Oh, I look forward to having it someday.
It's going to be wonderful when I get to heaven.
Is that what it is?
No.
You're living it now.
You sit there in your seat with the life of Christ as a gift from God.
You sit there in your seat with the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in you.
It's a wonderful thing to appreciate.
The very power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is present in you to direct, to sustain, to support, to direct your life.
The Spirit.
Of life in Christ Jesus.
It's really not time to go much farther on this particular chapter, but it it's here to bring out how to live it practically.
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So that we don't live under the constant dominion of sin and the old nature that's in US.
And I encourage you to read through the chapter and see how God has delivered us from the power that sin in our old nature. There's a conflict and there will be a conflict in you as long as you live because the Spirit that's in you and the flesh are contrary to each other and in conflict with each other and will remain in conflict as long as you live.
On earth until you're delivered from the flesh at the time of the rapture, but.
That spirit of life has set me free from that law of sin that exists in me, and that death which is a consequence of it.
So he says verse 12 were debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, but to live after the flesh. She shall die, but if through the Spirit you demortify the deeds of the body.
Ye shall live.
Now we're going to stop.
Before we read a few more scriptures.
We're going to sing a hymn.
100.
And 90.
Three.
I'll say at this point.
What brought the whole subject before me?
Or I was even asked to have anything to do with this conference or to be standing here at this moment.
Is the 1St 2 lines.
This stem.
And I say to you right now, if you don't remember a single other thing about this hour, I hope these first two lines.
If you need this.
Read this him every day for the next 10 days to get the 1St 2 lines. Do it.
It's worth it.
The first two lines Jesus, my Savior.
Thou art mine, the Father's gift of love divine.
Yes, I'm his.
I'm the gift of God to His Son.
I'm going to be the gift of God to his Son for all eternity. And that's absolutely the better part, really the more fantastic part, but.
You know what it is to get a gift.
You receive a gift.
And you're a little boy, you're an adult. And immediately there's something in you that says.
That's mine.
That's mine.
You take possession of it and you make it your own.
And that's what the 1St 2 lines emphasize here.
Jesus, you're mine.
You're mine. You belong to me.
God gave you to me.
Does that touch your heart?
You're my Father's gift to me. Jesus, my Savior, thou art mine.
Let's sing it.
Until I.
See.
OK, let's turn to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 9.
2nd Corinthians, Chapter 9.
And verse 15.
Thanks be unto God.
For his unspeakable.
Gift.
The gift of God, his Son.
Cannot be adequately described with words.
The fullness of the gift.
Exceeds description.
But at the same time, it's important to recognize that he can be known.
And enjoyed.
It's also important to stress again.
Responding to the Giver. Thanks.
Be unto God.
Or his unspeakable gift.
Time's running out, so we'll keep going with chapter 32. Corinthians chapter 3.
We're going to end with a few verses.
That connect the gift with the glory.
We've been having in the reading meetings the glory.
And being occupied with the glory.
And now we're going to be occupied with the glory and the gift.
Two Corinthians, chapter 3.
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Verse 17.
Now the Lord is that spirit, and we're the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.
But we all with open face beholding.
As in a glass or a better translation I think to get the thought with unveiled face.
Are transformed.
Or changed from glory into glory by the Spirit of the Lord.
I'll speak for a moment on God's side of things.
God is so pleased with His Son.
That he's decided in his purposes, he wants heaven to be filled with people that are just like him.
I had two brothers that were identical twins.
And.
1St 15 years of their life. They were inseparable.
Everything they did, they did together.
Except at school, because the teachers couldn't tell them apart, they put them in different classes. However, once in a while they'd go to school in the morning and decide they'd switch. I'm going to go to your class this morning. You can go to mine. Even they were so identical that their father, when they were not right up close to him, couldn't tell his own sons apart. They were identical.
I well remember standing beside the casket of one of them when his brother looked down at the body of his brother and he said, I feel like I'm looking at myself.
He had that sense of the oneness that they had begun the gift of life as a single.
Egg in the womb of their mother.
When God looks at you and when I look at you.
In the glory, I'm going to see you.
As just like Christ.
Same heart.
Same life, same character.
Because God has given you the life of Christ and the Spirit of God to dwell in you eternally, and the day when the flesh that's in you, the old life, will be entirely past.
When you receive the redemption of your body, it's purchased now, but you still have to have it redeemed.
And you will have that at the Rapture.
And then?
You'll be like Christ.
That's the end result of God.
Giving you to his son.
That you be like.
Christ here, it says with unveiled face. They couldn't.
They couldn't look on the glory in the time of Moses that we were reading about.
And that's the context here.
But with us now that need to prevail over the face because we can see the glory.
And here's the point of these verses is.
You don't have to change yourself.
Just be occupied with him.
Put your eye on him.
Open the Word to see Him, to sit down with Martha and Mary and the Lord.
To go into the garden with Mary on the day of the Resurrection.
To stand by the cross and see Him, you know we've been occupied with his official glory.
But his glory is seen in his life as well.
You can't look at him.
In the Word of God, without seeing aspects of glory in His person.
No more time for that notice.
Verse.
Six of the next chapter. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts.
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To give the light to the knowledge of the glory of God.
In the face of Jesus Christ.
We have this treasure.
In earthen vessels, that the Excellency of the power may be of God.
And not of us.
This incredible.
You get a treasure. What are you going to do with it?
Somebody gives you a gift. What are you going to do with it? If you value it, you're going to treasure it. You're going to put it in a safe place, right?
You're going to hold that treasure, and some people have safes to keep certain valuable things in, other people keep their houses locked and everything else in order to protect their treasure.
What's God treasured the most?
His son.
Where does he put his treasure?
In you.
And you?
Can you comprehend God putting His treasure in you?
His son.
We have this treasure.
God says it's as we have the hymn Jesus, my Savior, thou art mine.
He wants us to know it's ours. He wants us to enjoy it as ours. And so he says, I'm going to put my treasure in you.
Can you get your head around it? I can't.
But I enjoy it.
Touches my heart. It touches yours too.