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W.D. Frazee Sermons Ministry

W.D. Frazee

God Is Not Santa Claus

Our text this evening is James, the first chapter and the 17th verse.

And if when you look at it, you say, well, we studied that text a few evenings ago, I'll agree with you.

But I like whole wheat bread and beans and apples and several other things, even though I've had them before, don't you?

And I want you to see something more tonight.

As we study this text, this is the Christmas season, and many are thinking of giving gifts.

I'm sure that many are thinking of what they might receive.

Our text says, 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.

Oh friend, if we're really looking for gifts then, we look to him.

My subject tonight is God is not Santa Claus.

He is not some jolly old man pouring out candy canes and sparkling trinkets.

He's a wonderful father with a heart filled with love that longs to impart the richest gifts.

You know in Bunyan's allegory, He pictures Christian in his journey from the city of destruction to the celestial city, coming to the house of the interpreter where he spent some time viewing various acted parables.

Among them he saw a man in a cage, a great cage.

In the bottom of the cage was straw and this man had a rake and he was raking around in that muck and straw.

And every now and then he would find something and hold it up with a great grin on his face, some little trinket that he had discovered in the straw.

And Bunyan says, and all the while there stood 1 above his head holding out a golden crown, but he never even saw the crown, you understand, because he was so busy raking through the straw, hunting for those little beads and trinkets.

God, I repeat, is not Santa Claus scattering the toys and the trinkets.

He has rich gifts, infinite gifts, marvelous gifts.

And in this season of giving and receiving, Oh, I pray that whatever we may give to our dear ones and to the poor, whatever we may receive from loved ones shall be included in this repertoire of gifts that comes down from above, from the Father of Light.

There's 1 of these gifts that I wish to study especially with you tonight.

It's mentioned in Philippians, the first chapter in the 29th verse.

Is it done up with Christmas paper and pencil?

What does it say that is given to us, not only to believe but to what?

And somebody who didn't understand might say, well Paul, it's all very well for you to talk that way.

You're quite an apostle and people think a lot of you and after all you've been a rich man had a lot of Education and standing and it's all very well for you to talk that way Do you know where Paul was when he wrote this?

Did Paul have some interesting experiences at Philippi?

The Christians to whom he was writing perhaps included that jailer that was converted and baptized that memorable night that Paul with Silas spent in the prison.

Yes, we cannot charge Paul with speaking mere theoretical ideas.

He was talking from experience, and he says that 1 of the gifts, 1 of these wonderful gifts that God gives to those he loves is the gift of what?

Now, I wonder how it rates, where it stands on the list of our Father's gifts.

You'll find the answer to that in Ministry of Healing, page 478.

Of all the gifts that heaven can bestow upon men, fellowship with Christ in his sufferings is the most weighty trust and the highest honor.

You begin to appreciate what I said, that God is not Santa Claus.

Again, I say he's not some jolly old fellow passing out trinkets that glitter and candies that tickle the palate.

He has precious gifts, beautiful gifts, shall I say delicious gifts, but included in the list is 1, the highest of all the gifts.

He has luscious fruits of every tree of the garden Thou mayest freely eat.

He has foods for us to enjoy, the sweets of nature.

He has wonderful experiences in answered prayer, in miraculous healing, and oh, he has wonderful gifts of fellowship with him in walking beside the still waters and sharing in the green pastures.

Yes, beautiful gifts, lovely gifts, happy gifts, but of all the gifts that heaven can bestow upon men.

Fellowship with Christ in his suffering is the most weighted trust and the highest honor.

Somebody called me up on the telephone some days ago and asked me what I'd like for Christmas.

God has been so good to me in so many ways.

Of course, if God were to ask me what I want for Christmas, I could think of several things I'd like to ask him.

Of all the gifts that heaven can bestow upon men, Fellowship with Christ in his sufferings is the most weighty trust and the highest honor.

Did you know the Apostle Paul asked for that?

He had such an understanding of God's will and way.

In this same book of Philippians, the third chapter, beginning with the seventh verse, he tells in the preceding verses something of the things that he used to have, the positions, the advantages that men count great.

Then he says in the seventh verse, what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.

Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, the vilest refuse, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffering." All right.

To know the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.

Oh, friends, if we love somebody enough, We want to be where they are, particularly if they're in pain or misery of any kind, right?

And Jesus, our blessed Lord, carries the weight and burden of the sin and sorrow of this old world, and how happy it makes him when somebody here on this planet begins to understand and appreciate that, and begins to long to share that burden with the Lord.

This is the experience Paul had and he knew that this was the greatest gift that Jesus could share with him, the gift of fellowship with him in his sufferings.

This longing for souls, this desire to help others, I pray that every 1 of us may share at least to some degree in what the Apostle longed for.

Hebrews the 12th chapter and the 6th verse.

We are not only to share in the sufferings of Christ by meditating upon his death for us and the present burden that he carries.

But as a part of his loving gifts to us, God himself rebukes, disciplines, corrects us, And this is a precious gift.

Hebrews, the 12th chapter and the 6th verse.

For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

This too is not found on the Christmas tree of old Santa Claus.

This is a gift which we have to have anointed eyes to discern and appreciate.

The gift of correction, the gift of rebuke, the gift of discipline.

Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

This is echoed in Revelation, the third chapter and the 19th verse.

Both Paul in Hebrews and the message in Revelation is echoing this same assurance as given in the Old Testament, both by David and Solomon, in the Psalms and Proverbs.

The message is 1 from Genesis to Revelation, that those that God loves, He works with, corrects them, rebukes them, reproves them, disciplines them.

Now you have that revelation in the third chapter, don't you?

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God Is Not Santa Claus

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