God's unspeakable gift

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 7 DECEMBER 2025 pm – MR GARETH McINTYRE

2 CORINTHIANS 9 VERSES 8 TO 15

Long ago in Persia, there ruled a wise and a good king who loved his people. The king wanted to know how his people lived and he wanted to know about the hardships that they endured. Often the king would dress in the clothes of a beggar and he would call to the homes of the poor. One time he visited a very poor man who lived in a cellar. He sat down and he ate the awful food that the poor man ate. He spoke cheerful, kind words to him and then he left. A short time later, he went back to visit that same poor man again but only this time he revealed to him his true identity. He said “I am your king.” The king thought that maybe this man would ask some type of gift or favour but he didn’t. Instead he said “You left your palace and you left your glory to visit me in this dark and dirty place. You took time to sit with me. You ate the coarse food that I ate. You brought gladness and you brought joy to my heart.” He said “To others you have given your rich gifts, but to me you have given yourself.”

Tonight, the King of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ left his palace and he left his glory. And he came down to where we are and he gave himself for you and he me. And the bible calls him “the unspeakable gift.” Have you ever received God’s gift of salvation? Have you ever received by faith Jesus Christ, God’s unspeakable gift?

2 Corinthians 9’s theme is that of Christian giving. Paul is commending the believers for their willingness to give to the poor saints at Jerusalem. Here they are prepared to give not grudgingly but willingly. They are prepared to give not sparingly but bountifully. All the while as Paul is writing this letter he is taking time to build up the picture. Not thinking so much about the gifts but thinking about another gift, the Lord’s gift to us. All the while, Paul had his eye upon the God of heaven, the greatest giver of all. You see, Paul was bringing them to Jesus Christ, who is the greatest motivation for all given. He’s God’s love gift to a lost and undeserving world. Paul writes in verse 15 “Thanks be on to God for his unspeakable gift.” It’s the Christmas miracle. John 1 verse 14 tells us how that first Christmas came about. He writes “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.” In Galatians 4 verse 4 it says “And when the fulness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman born under the law.” Jesus Christ was the unique God man. As God, he walked on water. He calmed the storm. He healed the sick and he rose from the dead. As man, the Lord Jesus got thirsty and tired. He felt sorrow and pain and suffering. Jesus came to this earth as a tiny helpless seed planted into the womb of a young Jewish virgin. 40 years later Christ was born in a filthy stable. Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem meaning the house of bread. You see, Bethlehem was the birthplace of the bread of life. God wanted people to know that the only hope for this world was a Saviour. And that is the true meaning of Christmas. Do you realize that Christ is your only hope? Do you know that Christ is your greatest need? As one writer points out,

If your greatest need was information, God would have sent an educator.

If your greatest need was money, God would have sent an economist.

If our greatest need was pleasure, God would have sent an entertainer.

But our greatest need was forgiveness. So God sent us a Saviour.

If you die without the Saviour you will die in your sin. Jesus said in John 8 verse 21 “I go my way and ye shall seek me and die in your sins. Where I go, you cannot come.” And then the reality is that one day you will stand at the great white throne in judgment. You will stand alone. You will be sentenced alone. And you will suffer alone and listen for all of God’s great eternity. Will you reach out your hand tonight and receive Christ by faith and walk out being able to say this Christmas season, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. For some people Christmas is just another few weeks off work. It is maybe just a time to wind down, to relax and chill out. To some it is a stressful time. To others an emotional time. They may be feeling the financial squeeze and pressure. To others Christmas is just an excuse to get drunk, to have a party, to get something, to give a little, to spend money, to overeat and to indulge. I am sure we all enjoy the festivities, getting together with family and friends. We enjoy seeing our children open the presents on Christmas morning. We love to see their little faces light up. Grandparents love to take the opportunity to spoil their grandchildren and shower them with gifts. Everybody loves to gather around the Christmas dinner table, cutting the turkey, pulling the Christmas crackers and drinking the Shloer, relaxing in front of the fire and the list goes on. But you know to the Christian it is a time whenever we come remember something so special, the time to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amidst all the giving and getting we are so thankful to God for his unspeakable gift. We are so thankful for sins forgiven. We are thankful for everlasting life. We are thankful for his abiding presence and his everlasting love. We are thankful that we can claim every promise of the book. We are thankful for his amazing grace, for his boundless provision and for his precious holy and inspired word. Those of us tonight who are saved, we are so thankful that God has lifted us up out of the pit of sin, saved our soul and gave us a purpose in this life. Paul calls this gift unspeakable. Unspeakable carries the meaning of not being able to express something audibly, It means that it is impossible to adequately describe this gift. This unspeakable gift is beyond description. It is too intense. It is too extreme. It is indescribable. It is God’s unspeakable gift. This is the gift of all gifts, from the greatest giver of all. This is God’s love gift to a lost and fallen world. It is also a personal gift. Salvation is personally offered to each one of us. No one is excluded. The Lord himself says “I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” Christ said “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” He is the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He is personally offered. He is also presently available. The bible says “Behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation.” Salvation is available now. Praise God. We are in the day of grace. But remember, just like the ark in Noah’s day, provision was made. The offer was given. Then eventually the door would close and it would be too late.

Firstly, notice it is an expensive gift. Whenever we buy people Christmas presents, we don’t spend all the money that we have. Maybe we set a certain amount aside and say that’s it, that is all I am prepared to spend. That is all I am willing to spend on this present. But whenever we think of God’s unspeakable gift to us, when we think of its expense, its cost, God spared no expense for you and for me. Romans 8 verse 32 “he spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all.” Everything that heaven could afford was given for our salvation. There was no one in heaven or earth that could give more than God. When he gave the darling of his bosom, the well beloved, only begotten son of God there was a great cost.

When you look around at the graves of soldiers it reminds us that freedom is not free. It comes with a cost, a great cost. And these men and women paid the ultimate sacrifice.

We are so thankful for brave men and women who have lost their lives fighting for the freedom we enjoy. But do you understand that it is only Christ that can set you free from your sin? James says “Sin whenever it is finished brings forth death.” Christ was the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. The hymn writer said

There was no other good enough

To pay the price for sin

He only could unlock the gate

Of heaven and let us in

Whenever there was none other good enough, the father commissioned the son and sent him forth. Job 33 verse 24 describes Christ in poetic form.

I have found a ransom

God the Father could have searched through heaven, amidst all the angelic host. He could have looked to earth and humanity from Adam to the very end of time and he never would have found one that was good enough. He could not have found one who qualified to be the ransom for the souls of men and women. But you know in Jesus Christ, God the Father found a ransom. He found one who was good enough and he sent him forth on that costly mission to go to the cross and lay down his life for our sin. Jesus Christ became our substitute. He came to take the sinner’s place and he took our sin because that sin separates us from God. It must be punished and God’s justice demands perfection. And God gave the gift of his son, his perfect son. And Christ came and he purchased salvation for us. He came and he bought our freedom at highest cost. And it was paid for with his own life’s blood. And this gift is an expensive gift. Do you realise the cost of it? Christ had to leave behind and temporarily give up the splendour of heaven and leave his father. Christ came down into this sin sick world. He chose no palace, He chose no status. He took the lowest of the lowest in society and he was born in a filthy stable. He was born as a man and he dwelt among men. He was born of our bone and he was flesh of our flesh. He was deity veiled in our humanity. He was truly God and truly man. And the Lord Jesus Christ came will well willingly and he lived a perfect obedient and sinless life. He lived a life that you and I could never live. In the book of Hebrews it says he was holy, blameless and undefiled. He was separate from sinners. Christ said in John 6 verse 38 “For I came down from heaven not to do my own will but to do the will of him that sent me.” You see it was God the Father’s will that Christ would go to that cross of shame. The word of God says Christ set his face as a flint to go to Jerusalem. Nothing was going to stop him from going there. He endured all that came with it. He was betrayed. He was denied and forsaken. Isaiah could say that he was despised and rejected of men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The Lord Jesus sweated those great drops of blood as he agonized in the garden of Gethsemane. He endured the scouring of Golgotha and the passion of the metal tree. He was beaten and he was mocked and wept. They pulled the hairs from his lovely face and they beat a crown of thorns upon his lovely brow. But worse of all, he endured the darkness. He endured the wrath of a just and of a holy God. When the bible tells us that God laid upon him the iniquity of us all, Jesus Christ was exhausted for sin. Yet amidst his suffering, he lifted up his voice and he cried, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And as he hung on that cross, it was our sin he was bearing. It was our curse he was suffering. It was our debt he was paying. And it was our death that he was dying. You see, Christ drank the cup of God’s wrath so that you and I can drink the cup of God’s mercy. Oh the cost of it. It cost God everything. And he offers it freely to all that will repent and believe. It is an expensive gift.

Secondly, it is an expressive gift. This unspeakable gift of Christ and his salvation is expressed in God’s unconditional love. The bible says “For God so loved the world that he gave.” Whenever we buy gifts we buy them for people we know, our friends and our family members. We just don’t buy gifts to people that we don’t know. We buy them for people we love, people we care about, people that we have a concern for or an interest in. But God offers this gift to sinners. He offers it to people that haven’t earned it, haven’t merited it, or do not deserve it. God gave the gift of his son as an expression of his love to the lost and undeserving world. In Romans 5 verse 8 Paul puts it like this. “But God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” 1 John 4 verse 9 “And this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into this world that we might live through him.” The apostle Paul could say “The son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” This unspeakable gift is an expensive gift. It is an expressive gift of God’s great love for you. A W Tozer “God does not love populations. He loves people.” God does not love masses. He loves men. He loves all with a mighty love that has no beginning and has no end. Isaac Watts penned these words as he pondered the cross …

See from his head, his hands, his feet

Sorrow and love flow mingled down

Did e’er such love or sorrow meet

Or thorns compose so rich a crown

 

Where the whole realm of nature mine

That where an offering far too small

Love so amazing, so divine

Demands my soul, my life, my all

Maybe you feel unloved, maybe you think how could God love me after all the awful things I have done. Maybe you feel like you have made a mess of everything. Well, the word of God tells us that God loves you. And God so loved you and he expresses that love by sending his son down into this world to die for you that you might live through him that you might one day live with him. This is an expensive gift. It is an expressive gift.

Thirdly, it is an eternal gift. Every gift that you’ll receive this Christmas will only last a short time. If it is a voucher it will be used. If it is clothes that they will wear, they will break. They will get lost. You will have them in your possession for only a short space of time. Everything we have in this life can be lost. It can be taken away in an instant. You can lose your possessions. You can lose your business. You can lose your wealth. And very quickly you can lose your wealth, your health. But when it comes to God’s unspeakable gift, it is an eternal gift. Christ said in John 10 verse 28 “I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. This gift of Christ, this gift of eternal life will never be lost. It will never break down. And it will never fail. It will never be destroyed. It will never be taken away. You see, the bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. His promises are so sure. If you come to Christ tonight, if you repent and turn from your sin and believe the gospel and be saved, you will never be lost. You will be as sure of heaven as if you are already there. John 3 verse 36 “he who believes in the Son has eternal life.” John 6 verse 27 says “Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you for him hath God the Father sealed.” What are you labouring for tonight? What are you depending on tonight? Many devote themselves to business. Many spend years and years climbing the ladder, accumulating great wealth but forgetting that one day they will have to leave all of it behind. The bible warns us “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” Some devote themselves to religion. Some try and do their best. They do good and they give money. Thinking that because they live on the clean side of the broad road they are OK. They think that doing good will somehow outweigh their bad. Forgetting the bible says your righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And one day, whenever they are weighed in the balances not in the balances of man, not in the balances of the church but weighed in the balances of God, they will be found wanting. Being good and doing good is commendable but it will keep the blood of Christ to keep you out of hell. Some seek after pleasure. Some search this world high and low for something that will bring lasting peace. But this world has nothing to offer. The hymn writer summed it up when he penned those words

I’ve tried the broken cisterns Lord

But ah the water failed

Then he goes on to say

There is none but Christ can satisfy

None other name for me

There’s love and life and lasting joy

Lord Jesus found in thee

This unspeakable gift, it is an expensive gift. It is an expressive gift. It is an eternal gift.

But can we notice lastly this gift, this unspeakable gift, it is an essential gift. Whenever we buy people gifts, we would try and get them something that we believe they need something that they don’t already have. Sometimes we are at a loss what to get. And the point is this – most of the gifts, if not all of the gifts we will receive this Christmas are unessential gifts. But whenever we think of God’s unspeakable gift, this gift is essential. Not just to some, but it is essential to all. Salvation is vital. Salvation is of utmost importance. It is most necessary. Nothing in your life should take greater priority. There is no greater need for a man or a woman than getting right with God and aving their sins forgiven and under the precious blood. Without Christ there is no escape. In the book of Hebrews 2 we are asked that great question “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” The answer is there is no escape. There is no escape. Hell waits those who lived without Christ and die without Christ. The old says goes you can run but you can’t hide. And death will eventually catch up in you. King David could say in the book of Samuel “There is but a step between me and death.” Will you be ready. Are you ready to meet God?

Two men on one occasion were watching a funeral possession passed by and one said to the other “There goes the last thing of all.” The other said, “No it’s not. After death comes judgment, and you will either meet Jesus Christ as your Saviour or you will meet him as your judge.”

You see this is an essential gift. You will either hear those words “depart from me, you cursed” or you will hear those beautiful words “come, enter into the joy of the Lord.” Do you want to know what the cry from hell is this evening. You will find it in the book of Luke – “send someone lest they come to this place of torment.” It is cried from the lips of those who died having rejected and neglected God’s unspeakable gift.  Maybe you can say like the hymn write 

Where is the blessedness I knew?

When first I saw the Lord

Where is the sole refreshing view

Of Jesus and his word?

The Lord stands waiting and he stands willing to save and restore any backslider that comes to him. And he stands with his arms stretched out like the father, ready to welcome the prodigal home.

Some time ago in Germany a young man lay on top of an operating table. A skilled surgeon with his medical team stood just beside the bedside. The surgeon said to the patient “Son if you have any thing to say before we administer the anesthetic now would be your opportunity, for it is my duty. They will be the last words you ever utter.” This young man fully understood because his tongue was being removed because of cancer. What words for such an occasion? What words would you say? The young man pondered it for a few moments and then he said this. “Thank God for Jesus Christ.”

I wonder can you say that? Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. If you can’t say that will you say it now and receive the greatest gift ever given for Jesus’ sake?