2 Corinthians 8, verse 1, Moreover,
brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on
the churches of Macedonia. He's using them as an example.
How that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of
their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their
liberality. For to their power I bear record,
yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves,
praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift
and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves
to the Lord and unto us by the will of God, insomuch that we
desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish
in you the same grace also. Therefore, as you abound in everything,
in faith, and utterance and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in
your love to us, see that you abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, but
by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity
of your love. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich. And herein I will give my advice,
For this is expedient for you who have begun before, not only
to do, but also to be forward a year ago. Now, therefore, perform
the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to will, so there
may be a performance also out of that which you have. For if
there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that
a man hath, and not according that he hath not. For I mean
not that other men be eased, and you burdened, but by an equality,
that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want,
that their abundance also may be a supply for your want. and
that there may be equality. As it is written, he that hath
gathereth much had nothing over, and he that hath gathered little
had no lack. But thanks be to God, which put
the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. For indeed,
he accepted the exhortation, but being more forward of his
own accord, he went unto you. And we have sent with him the
brother whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches,
and not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to
travel with us with this grace, or this gift, which is administered
by us to the glory of the same Lord and declaration of your
ready mind. Avoiding this, that no man should
blame us in this abundance which is administered by us, providing
for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also
in the sight of men. And we have sent with them our
brother, another brother, whom we have oftentimes proved diligent
in many things, but now much more diligent upon the great
confidence which I have in you. Whether any do inquire of Titus,
he is my partner and fellow helper concerning you, or our brethren
be inquired of, they are the messengers of the churches and
the glory of Christ. Wherefore, show you to them and
before the churches the proof of your love and of our boasting
on your behalf." Now, we have in this chapter, this eighth
chapter, in the second letter to the Corinthians, an encouragement
to generosity. Paul uses the example of the
churches at Macedonia in the first couple of verses, and that
would be Philippi, Thessalonica, and the brethren at Berea. That
would be those groups. To uplift the brethren at Corinth. Now, I don't necessarily want
to limit us to talking about giving of alms. Though it's in
the Bible, giving is a grace, And he deals with that also more
in chapter 9. Let every man give according
as he purposes his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly
or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. So he deals
with that. And that's a grace that believers have, is they
give. They give. And I'm not necessarily going
to look at all of us. I want to look at a broader scope. A broader scope. The book, we're
looking higher and see this example as perhaps the plainest example
of grace in the heart produces actions with our feet, our hands. Or
basically grace produces graciousness. Let me read to you what someone
said about this chapter. For it is in my view most interesting
that this chapter He says, neither do I find in the whole Bible
anything which throws a clearer light on what may be called the
true spirit of the gospel. And that's when it was read to
me, that's what it did to me. It's just like, I didn't realize
it was in here. I've looked at this. It's just
something about it is freeing, is liberating, and by the grace
of God, May we practice it. And if we were believers, we
will. But to see Christ as all in all, and to see us as nothing, it's right here. It's right here.
And if you see yourself like that, and you see Christ as all
in all, you're not going to have any desire other than to come
to know Him, and to meet with Him, and to receive Him. Let's look at the verses 1-5.
Grace, the grace of God in the Macedonian brethren. Macedonian
brethren. God's rich, free, sovereign grace,
that's what he's saying here, is the result of Christ doing
and dying for us and blotting out all of our corruptions. Also,
God's grace is the result of anything good that we say or
do. Remember, I've quoted this often
times, John 15, 5, Without, Christ says, without me, you can do
nothing. Now we're talking spiritual and
that's what we're here for. I'm not talking about physical
bank accounts, I'm not talking about this or that, I'm talking,
we're talking spiritual things. So without Christ, we can do
nothing that pleases God. Or as it says in this passage
here, look at what he says, moreover brethren, Are we reminding you
of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia?
The grace of God bestowed. There it is right there. The
word bestowed means to give or to grant. God granted them Grace,
which they didn't have before, you're not born with it, you
can't produce it, you can't work for it, you can't merit it, you
can't come to the front of the church and confess and find it
here, you can't find it in the baptistry, you can't find it
anywhere other than in God in Christ. The grace of God bestowed,
that's freely, without our merit, without our input, without our
stench of works upon it. And what this does is a genuine
love for Christ, for what He is and who He is and what He's
done. Look at verse 2. How then in a great trial of
affliction, this is the churches at Philippi, you can read the
history of Philippi, Thessalonica, the struggles that they had,
A great trial of affliction. The abundance of their joy and
their deep poverty. That's exactly what that means.
Not only spiritual poverty, but physical, they didn't have much. They didn't have much at all. Abounded unto the riches of their
liberality. Basically, what's going on is
the churches at Jerusalem were in physical, physical trouble,
affliction, trial, and they were destitute. So what Paul is doing
is getting a love offering, money and whatever, food and whatever
they could do, time, services, and gathering this together and
they're going to give it to Titus and those two other brethren,
so there's three, there's not, so everything's above board.
They're going to take this gift. They started a year ago, if you
understood what was being read. Titus, they started a year ago
and they didn't finish it. Paul's exhorting Titus, finish
what you started. That's what grace does. They
say the road of good intentions and that kind of thing. No, the
grace finishes what it starts. Because as we saw last week,
God's grace is sufficient for our every need. So that's what's
going on. But these brethren in the church
of Philippi and Thessalonica and the Berean, they didn't really
have anything to give. They didn't really have much
to give by way of money. But they did. They did. They did. They did what they had to do
because they saw my needs right now are not as great as we hear
And they heard it from Paul. It was attested that their need
was greater. Their need was greater. So the
grace of God, what it does is even through trial, they're still
gracious. Here they're giving to, as I
said, the poor saints at Jerusalem. Grace makes no excuses for tight-fistedness. for stinginess. Grace is generous
in good times. Grace is generous in bad times.
It rushes to the aid, the assistance, whether it's time or need or
help. Like I said, I don't want to
look broader than money. Look at verse 3. Grace goes above
and beyond. Look at verse 3. This is again,
this is still the churches of Thessalonica, the church of Philippi.
For to their power I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they
were willing of themselves. That word beyond means exceeding. So Paul, what he's saying is
I expected as believers that they would gather up a collection,
and we had a little bit of help when we built this place. A few
things came in. We had help with this, we had
help with the mower, we've had help. But Paul thought, okay, I know
you guys are poverty or poor, poor stricken, and yet they were
able to do Beyond. They were able to exceed Him.
So what does grace do in the heart? Grace goes above and beyond
what is expected of us. Whether we're gathering together,
whether we gather for worship, fellowship, service, relief,
support. And that involves communicating. That involves communicating. If I haven't talked to you in
three months, how do I know what you need? If I haven't poked
my head in, He said, any of this or that, how do I know what you
need? Again, I'm backing off from the
finance, so I'm not talking about that. As I like to say in my own personal
self, the believer is, by the grace of God, is all in. Are
we all in regarding the Gospel? He's going to tie everything
together in verse 9. Why we do what we do, verse 9.
But as a church, and I'm not rebuking anybody, this just really
knocked me over, floored me, and after it was read, I go,
I want to be like that. I want to be like these brethren
that obviously show the grace of God in them. I understand
limitations. Look at verse 8. I speak not
by commandment, and I'm not speaking as you need to do this, but by
occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity
of your love." Verse 10, "'And herein I give my advice, for
this is expedient for you who have begun before Titus and the
other brethren not only to do, but also to be forward a year
ago.'" Apparently they started to do this and then they were
providentially hindered. So I understand limitations.
And then in Philippians 4, in verse 10, he says, But I rejoice
in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath
flourished again, wherein you were also careful, but you lacked
opportunity. That's just human nature. You
all are busy. You all work. You provide for
your family. And if man doesn't provide for
his family, he's not fit. You provide for your family,
and then the Lord will see to it that the church, through whatever
means is taken care of, or one another. We're a collective.
That's just how it works. There was no welfare back then. They took care of the widows.
They took care of the elders. Didn't have much. Didn't have
two, three, four cars in the driveway and all this other stuff
that we here in this country enjoy, take for granted. So I understand limitations.
I too am limited. But this I know, the second point,
this I know in verse 12, for if there be first a willing
mind, a willing mind, This is a universal principle of the
gospel. Because Psalms chapter 10 and
verse 3 says, He makes us willing in the day of His power. Now
I've always, and I was talking to this pastor a couple of weeks
ago, I always took that as to mean unto salvation. No, it's
everything. It's everything. He makes you
willing in the day of His power. I'm doing fine. I don't need
salvation. I don't need to talk about God. Don't talk to me about
God. Then He makes you willing through the preaching of the
Gospel. You hear, and all of a sudden, oh, woe is me. Then you seek Him. Then you trust
Him. Then you repent. And then you're
baptized. I don't understand what the problem
is today. Believe and be baptized. Why is that skipped? That's why
we've got the thing. It doesn't need to be skipped.
Believe and be baptized. And the only reason why I say
this, I don't see anything here, but I hear other pastors, grace
preachers, where they go, oh, he believed, but he doesn't think
he needs to be baptized. Time out! What's the Word say? It should be the end of it. We're
obedient because He makes us willing in the day of His power.
So, we first must be willing, whether it's to give, financially,
whether it's to give of our time, He makes us willing. There has to be a willing mind,
a desire to worship, a desire to see needs, a desire to assist
in any way possible. That word willing, and it's used
several times in this chapter, and in the next chapter, I didn't
realize how often it was used. This word willing means readiness,
or cheerful eagerness. It's expected of me to give to the
church. Don't give. It's expected of me to be here
Sunday morning. If you don't have a willingness,
a readiness, and a cheerful eagerness, and I confess, there's times
I don't want to be here either. That's just the way it is. Wrong side of the bed, say whatever
you want to, it's sin, it's pride, it's self. There has to be a willing mind
and He'll make you willing if you're His. He'll make you willing
to stop thinking about yourself and to come and listen or call
in or whatever, as often as you can. And I understand, again,
limitations. I understand vacations. I understand
this stuff. But go home and read these two
chapters slowly. Now remember, this church of
Corinth, they were not perfect. They had some troubles. As a
matter of fact, probably one of the most problematic churches.
They had moral issues. You wouldn't know it by reading
these two chapters. But that's our position in Christ.
We are willing to believe all that the prophets say about Christ. We are willing to repent and
to be baptized. We are willing to unify under
His banner, and that means under the banner of His church, to
carry on with the saints through thick and thin. We're willing
to abound in the grace of God. We're willing to pray, to listen,
to be taught, to be teachable. He's got to do it though. He
has to do it though. All in. And if that doesn't mean
that you sink, that you take everything I say, hook, line,
and sinker, but I will say this. I understand the gospel. I preach
the gospel. Do you believe the gospel? That's how it works. Now, you
need to be like the Bereans and go home and check it out. Check
out what I'm saying. Bruce and I, we've been doing
this a long enough time. I remember talking to Henry years
and years. The first time I ever met Henry,
he got aggravated at me because I was asking too many questions.
But I remember I asked him. I said, well, when you preach,
you preach in air. He says, there's probably so
much air in my message that I would be shocked. He says, but the
Gospel. The gospel is a substitution
of Christ. He said, the Lord's taught me
that, and I'm clear. So, all this other stuff. You
may have some weird ideas about revelations. I don't really know
that, but I'm not going to go there. That's why you don't really
see me preaching much about revelations. I'm going to leave it to those
who are smarter than me. But it's an inspired Word of God.
So, I'm human. I'm a sinner preaching to sinners,
is what I mean. So we'll be willing, and I'm
so thankful that God makes us meet, as He says in Colossians
1.12, meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the saints
and lights. Or else we would finally just
wander off on our own way. And we've seen that here time
and time again. People come here, stay here for
a while, and they get bored with the Gospel. And then they will
usually blame the preacher or something. I know, I need to
be clear. That's why I try to study and
read stuff like that. But I know if I miss it, at least
the Word of God is read. Now, I understand my limitations,
your limitations, our limitations, but look at the text. Look at
what's going on here. They didn't have anything to
give, and they gave. They gave. Thank God for His
unspeakable gift. Now, once there is a willing
mind, and it's made so obviously by His divine revelation, Look at verse 4, grace insists. The Macedonian church, they told
Titus and Paul, they prayed with us with much entreaty that we
would receive the gift, this gift of money, food, whatever,
and take upon us the fellowship of the ministry unto the saints.
Grace insists. Grace insists. Take the gift,
whether it's time, money, fellowship, whatever it may be. Verse 5,
and this they did, not as we had hoped, But first they gave
their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God.
They did more than what we thought. More than what we thought they
were capable of. Grace gives and keeps giving. Again, this
chapter is speaking about alms, but I want us to see the much
larger scope. What they are doing here is they
are denying self, they're doing for each other, they're serving
one another, And I know we must respect each
other's privacy. Again, it's just common human
courage. Respect each other's privacy. Some people like to
be called more than others. Some people text, they text me back
and whatever. Some people, I understand that.
But we are a family. Would you treat your father that
way? Would you treat your mother that way? Would you treat your
children or your cousins or your uncles? No, no, no. Why? We are citizens. We are citizens
together, the grace of God. This is our true family. I know
you have family and you spend time and you must do that. How
else are they going to hear the gospel? But the family, this
is the true family. And over you get, you'll see
that. And you say, well, I believe
you, but you do or you don't. This is the true family. And
those in different places where the gospel is preached, and there's
places that it's preached that I don't know about, but I know
quite a few places, they are our family too. Go to a conference,
and you'll find this out just like that. That's why I have
different preachers come in, because they are family. Family. Again, this chapter,
and I urge you to read it and muse upon it and meditate over
it, It shows how these Macedonians believed and lived the Gospel
of the grace of God. And these Corinthians, look at
what he says in verse 9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know it. They didn't just talk about it,
they didn't just memorize it, they didn't just fit it into
some form of doctrinal group, but believed it, they operated
under it, they lived it, they loved it, and rejoiced in it.
Do you and I? May it not be said of us here,
come hear the Gospel. Just come hear the Gospel. We're
going to preach the Gospel here Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday. I
hope I don't hear it. I've got a wedding. I've got
to check a piece of land that I bought. Remember all those
excuses that it was made? I've got to check land. I bought
it. I've got to go check it out and make sure it's land. And
again, I understand, you know, obligations, family obligations. But this is family. Sad as it is. What do they call those families
that are dysfunctional? That's what we are. And everybody's
personality is different. So be it. But the grace of God
is sufficient. How dare Paul? Exhort these people how dare
Paul make a comparison between another churches. Well, this
is what this church is doing This is what this church. How
dare he do that? Well, he's an apostle and he's an evangelist
and he sees all these different things How could he do such a
thing? How could he encourage him by
what means verse 9? Here's the key, but you know
that He didn't say, I know. He sincerely believes that these
people understand the gospel. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich. Oh
my! Did He hit them over the head
with the law? No. How about whips? How about biscuits? Rewards? How about do's and don'ts?
No, no, no. and the love that He showed us
poor, miserable, vicious sinners. This is how we did it. Christ, who has all things and
owns all things and is over all things, became poor. Though He
was rich, yet for your sakes became poor. He became destitute,
lonely, unwanted, discarded, despised and rejected of men.
So we, who are all the above, may become rich in grace, rich
by grace, rich to give of self, rich to honor Him who loved us
and gave Himself for us. Basically, through His poverty,
through His poverty, if we ever see Christ's humiliation, we
will ever be so grateful and joyful and at peace. We won't
be worried about complaining about this and that and this
and woe is me. And woe is everybody else but
me. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. You can't save yourself. It's
all by God's grace. Though He was rich, He had everything.
He became human. For our sakes, He became poor.
That we, through His poverty, might be rich. He's not speaking
about money. He's speaking about spiritual. Without Him, we could
do nothing. From Him is our fruit found. Well, we are rich indeed. Sin is pardoned. We're forgiven. We're free from
bondage. We've escaped our own prison
from without and within. And now we're set up on a hill
to view all the everlasting benefits we now possess because of His
poverty. Now you say, why are you talking
to me about this? Why are you talking to me? And
I was apprehensive about doing this. Well, that's what a watchman
does. And if you get time on the front
pew, there's a bulletin article by Henry called the 7000. Read that if you get time. I
will leave this one. I got it on my bulletin board
right up by my study. I'll leave it here. Why do I
encourage and why do I exhort? Well, we're sheep, aren't we?
We say we're sheep. We sing a song, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it, prone to leave
the God I love. The world gets too important.
The world gets too big. It gets too enticing. Friendship with the world is
to be an enemy of God. And that's what the Scripture
says. I'm not going to go one way or the other. I'm just going
to quote it. That's what we do. But He won't
leave us or forsake us. He'll keep us because His grace
is sufficient. And another reason why I encourage
and exhort you and I is because I'm prone to wander just like
everybody else, and I've got the old flesh which still tugs
against all things good and gracious. The flesh wants its way. It never
improves. It doesn't reform. That's why
it's going to be killed. Thirdly, we need it. You need it. I need it. And lastly, we need to once again
look only to Christ and view Him as He is set forth in this
book. Every time we gather together.
Are you still talking about Christ? I'm not going to talk about politics.
I'm not going to talk about what's so called religion. I'm not going
to talk about science. I'm not going to talk about this.
I'm not going to talk about that. Because I know the gospel is
used to save. That's what I'm going to do.
And I thank you for your attendance and I thank you for your attention.
Because next, Lord willing, if I make it back Wednesday or Sunday,
It would be the same thing, a different passage. But look at this chapter,
look at these two chapters. See what they did. How did they
do that? The grace of God. For they knew
the grace of God. How that Christ who was rich,
they knew that. They knew it here. To God be
the glory. Nathan, would you close us? Father, teach us how to have
a willingness to give, not just a time of help or a call, a message. If someone's in need, Lord, give
us the means to help. The elect are followers of You
in name only. But by Your grace to us, You've
given us a willingness and we need to hear about it. We need
to be reminded of it. Lord, we ask that all
Your churches be given this type of heart, this willingness to
help. They are all your churches, and
so, therefore, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We should care for each other's
needs. We ask these things now in Jesus' name. Amen. so so you. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are such
sinners. The message this morning applies
so much to us. Lord, we come to worship and
sometimes we come and we're cold. We'll go through the motions
and many times walk away and maybe not hear your message.
So many things get up on our mind, and this world tries us
so much, and we become very doubtful and very insecure. Our peace
seems to fade. We seem to try to take hold and
do things ourselves, and we just make ourselves miserable. We're supposed to come here,
Lord, to worship You and desire to come and see You as You truly
are. to desire together with the saints
and to worship together. We know, Lord, so if we're in
our hearts right and our minds right, we come and see You, and
things in the trials of our lives and our world fades away. But, Lord, sometimes that doesn't
happen. So You set aside time just like
this where we think of nothing else. Not the message. or things in the world, or anything,
you said to do this in remembrance of You. And that is exactly what
we're to do, is just think strictly upon You, our Lord, our Savior,
our Mediator, our Father, the One who takes care of His children,
and all that goes along with the character and the promises
that You've given us. Concentrate and think upon You.
You make sure there is a time that no matter how things are
in our life, that You are set forth in front of us and in our
minds and our hearts. So Lord, we thank You that You
have provided, You take care of everything we need, for You
know how we are. Lord, we thank You and pray these
things in Jesus' name, Amen. He says in His Word, And as they
did eat, Jesus took bread and blessed, and break it, and gave
to them, and said, Take ye, this is my body. And he took the cup, and when
he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank
of it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many.