2nd Corinthians chapter 6 and
verse 1. We then, as workers together
with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God
in vain. For he saith, I have heard thee
in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured
thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Giving no offence in anything,
that the ministry be not blamed. but in all things approving ourselves
as the ministers of God in much patience, in afflictions, in
necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in
tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, by pureness, by
knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost,
by love unfeigned. by the word of truth, by the
power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand
and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and
good report, as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet
well known, as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not
killed. as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,
as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing
all things. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Paul has been speaking extensively
in the preceding verses about reconciliation. In chapter 5
verse 19 he says, God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now Paul speaks here of God in
Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Now we spent a
little bit of time thinking about who the world meant a couple
of weeks ago so I'm not going to touch upon that other than
to say that what we're talking about here is the world of the
elect or those sinners from the Gentiles that were called in.
to be united with the Jewish believers through the preaching
of the gospel. But what Paul is speaking about
here is this work of God in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. And then he is also going on
to speak in this 19th verse of there being a committing to us,
that is to gospel preachers, the word of reconciliation. So
we've got these two aspects, God reconciling the world to
himself in Christ and the word of reconciliation being committed
to gospel ministers. So that what we see in this little
verse is that in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, there
is an actual reconciliation. when God was reconciled to his
elect, to his chosen people, by the blood of Jesus Christ,
their substitute. And in verse 21, we find that
confirmed. Again, we're in chapter 5 of
2 Corinthians, verse 21. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. So there's that actual reconciliation
by the blood of the substitute Jesus Christ. But then there
is also the word of reconciliation or the ministry of reconciliation. And that is the message of the
gospel that is to be declared and preached to sinners. And
that, Paul, is speaking about as the work of the ministry. So there is this actual reconciliation
that takes place, and then there is the communication or conveying
of that message of actual reconciliation, which is called the word or ministry
of reconciliation. and that's what Paul was called
to preach. And that's what preachers do.
We've got a message to preach and we have to work at preaching
it. It's a ministry, it's a labour,
it's a work. So that when the apostle says,
In verse one of chapter six, we then as workers together,
he is literally talking about labouring in this ministry or
word of reconciliation as a worker. We have a message to preach and
we have to work at preaching it. We have to work conscientiously,
we have to work with care, as good workmen, we are to work
with dedication and commitment and with purpose, so that preachers
are workmen. And the message of the gospel
that we preach is this message of actual reconciliation that
has taken place on the cross. And that message of actual reconciliation
when it is preached and when it is attended with the gift
of faith by the Holy Spirit is the message which brings sinners
to discover what that reconciliation on the cross accomplished. They
discover God's mercy. They experience God's peace. They gain knowledge of sins forgiven
and they have the opportunity to enjoy all the benefits and
the blessings of grace and salvation. So the work of the ministry then
is what Paul is going on to enlarge upon here in chapter six. And
it seems as if he's got in view some of these men at Corinth,
some of these ministers, pastors, preachers, faithful labourers
in the church at Corinth. and he links himself together
with the other ministers that were with him, whether it was
Titus, or Timothy, or Silas, or Epaphroditus, or whatever
the minister might be. He links himself, those men,
his fellow preachers, together with these preachers at Corinth.
And it's to these men at Corinth that he is speaking when he writes
the words, receive not the grace of God in vain in this opening
verse of chapter six. Now we might wonder about that.
Why would Paul write something like that? Receive not the grace
of God in vain. Is it possible that you can receive
the grace of God in vain? We might wonder that such a thing
would be said and we would be right to wonder. Because Paul
is not saying here that the Gospel is in some way ineffectual or
that it lacks power to save. Of course it is effectual and
of course it is the power of God unto salvation. The Apostle
Paul knew that. That is the heart and core of
his message. What he is saying is that that
effectual message, the glory of God requires that message
to be effectual. The death of Christ requires
that message to be effectual. And the calling, quickening work
of the Holy Spirit requires it. God doesn't offer a potential
salvation to sinners to be taken or to be left according to their
whims, to be accepted or rejected on the grounds of their personal
free will. Christ's gospel is a gospel that
saves or else God is not sovereign and Christ is not king in his
own kingdom. But rather, in making that statement,
in saying, receive not the grace of God in vain, what Paul is
saying to these preachers in Corinth is, having received this
ministry of reconciliation, this word of reconciliation, this
gospel that they were to carry out and preach, having received
it from God, and having received it from Paul's own ministry,
and other preachers that may have preached to them, that these
preachers themselves and pastors should in turn preach it faithfully
and emphatically. You've received this gospel of
grace, use it, don't let it lapse in vain. Now remember that these
Corinthians, it's part of the reason for Paul's letter, these
Corinthians were being disturbed by preachers who wished to stitch
together a hybrid gospel of works and grace. that they were bringing a message
which is not the doctrine of grace, was not the free grace,
powerful gospel that Paul preaches. And Paul admonishes these Corinthian
preachers not to listen or to be swayed by these men, not to
receive the grace of God in vain, but to stand fast in the truth
which had been delivered to them and to declare faithfully the
message that was committed to them. were to declare the gospel
that saves, not a false gospel, not a made-up compromise or concoction
that was designed to tickle the itching ears of sinners, but
never yet to bring a soul to a saving knowledge of the truth. And verse 2 is a delightful little
confirmation or support of this admonition by the apostle. He says in verse 2, For he saith,
I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have
I succoured thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. In the first part of that verse,
it's taken from Isaiah chapter 49, God the Father is speaking
words of encouragement, words of comfort. to God the Son during
his time on earth. So this is Isaiah prophesying
about a conversation that takes place between God the Father
and God the Son during the days of the Lord's time on earth. And We know that the Lord Jesus
Christ often prayed to his father. So this is one of these occasions
perhaps where this prayer communion between the father and the son
is taking place. And believe it or not, we are
given the actual content of some of those prayers in this prophecy
in Isaiah and then being quoted here by Paul to the Corinthians. The Lord prayed, for example,
in the Psalms and we've been talking about that in our Lord's
Day meetings where the words of David can be placed in the
mouth of the Saviour and some beautiful insights into the Lord's
experience be gleaned thereby. But the Lord also prayed, for
example, during his ministry in John chapter 17. We call that
the high priestly prayer. He taught his own disciples to
pray. He lifted up his eyes and he
prayed to God on numerous occasions. We hear the Lord's prayers in
the Garden of Gethsemane, amongst other places. And here in this
verse that Paul takes from Isaiah 49, the father is telling the
son that he has heard his prayers and that he will give to his
well-beloved son all that he asks. Let me just read the verse
from Isaiah 49. It's verse eight, and here's
what it says. Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable
time have I heard thee. Now that acceptable time was
the time of the Lord Jesus Christ's earthly ministry. So we call
that the acceptable time, and I'll touch upon that in a moment.
But what Isaiah says is that in an acceptable time have I
heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee. and I will
preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people to establish
the earth to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. So this
period of the Lord's ministry on earth is called an acceptable
time. And it's acceptable because what
Christ is doing in it was acceptable to God. It was acceptable to
God for the reconciliation of his people. It was acceptable
to Christ because it secured his bride. This was the great
purpose of his coming. and it was acceptable to God
the Holy Spirit because the redeemed of the Lord whom he would atone
for by his blood on the cross were those that would then be
quickened and called to salvation by the gospel. So all the persons
of the Godhead found this to be an acceptable time. It was after all that time which
had been looked forward to eternally in the covenant of grace. And Christ's atoning work is
also acceptable to every sinner who is brought to salvation because
of his work on the cross in the day of salvation. So that's the
first part of this little verse that Paul quotes here in verse
2. The second part is Paul himself
speaking. So the first part was God speaking. The second part is Paul speaking. And again, he's addressing these
Corinthian preachers and pastors. And he's applying to them the
work of carrying this message of reconciliation. doctrines
of grace, the grace of God and the sovereign grace gospel to
the sinners to whom they would be sent. And Paul says, behold,
now is the accepted time. That is, now is the accepted
time for the gospel of reconciliation to be declared for the salvation
of those sinners for whom Christ died. That little word there,
behold, he uses a behold in front of both of these phrases because
he's drawing particular attention to them. He says, behold, now
is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation
when God, the Holy Spirit, will use this ministry to gather God's
elect through the preaching of the message that has been committed
to you through the word of reconciliation. Now, Paul put that verse in brackets
and I'm going to put a little comment in brackets here now
as well because here's a little bit of an aside. And I say this
because it's been my experience and I imagine it will have been
your experience as well. But the way in which Arminians
and free willers employ that verse to suggest that sinners
must believe today because they may not get another chance tomorrow,
is an application founded on their own free will nonsense. This is an ever present now. This now is the time of the gospel,
the time through which God's people will be gathered. And
we're going to see in the rest of chapter six that God is building
a temple. God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is
building his temple of all those, the elect of God, who will be
saved being gathered in. And it is all happening in this
ever-present now, this day of salvation. The day of salvation
for God's elect until every last one is called by the Holy Spirit
through the power of the gospel. And it is certainly not a device
to frighten people into a decision for Christ in case they lose
the opportunity tomorrow. None of the Lord's people will
ever be lost. Every single one for whom the
Lord Jesus Christ died will be brought to salvation. And verse
three continues on from verse one. So there was a little parenthesis
in verse two there. Verse three continues on, and
the apostle encourages these Corinthian preachers to be single-minded
in their dedication to the work of the gospel, to give careful
attendance to the things that they say, and that they don't
give any extra cause for offence. There is an offence in the gospel,
there is an offence in the cross, but ministers are to lay no additional
stumbling blocks in the way of their hearers, either by their
actions or their attitudes or their behaviour. Verses 4-10
then, and I'm going to skip on through these verses really,
I'm not going to speak about them this evening. Just to say
that they're examples from Paul's own ministry and from the ministry
of the men who travelled with him, of what a true minister
of the Lord Jesus may be called at different times to encounter
and endure. These were men who took seriously
their roles as ministers of reconciliation, preachers of the gospel. They
were examples to the Corinthians then, and they are examples to
all ministers of the gospel today. May God make our ministries profitable. Paul says to the Ephesians, May
God make our ministries profitable for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. May it be
so. Amen.