Belarus. He's in ICU. He's been
in a coma for the last four days. Wait a minute. He is on the transplant list. He's the number one candidate
for liver transplant in the Southeast United States for his blood type.
But last night he coded three times. He's having seizures and
his blood pressure is very erratic and the doctors just came in
and said that under the condition that he's in now he wouldn't
be able to survive surgery. So they're trying to stabilize
him. Pam is with him. And Charlie is with Deb. So that's where we are. Pam's doing well. She's catching
one, two hour naps. Those of you that have had any
experience with ICU understand how that goes. I don't know if I missed anything. He's on a ventilator. He was
on a dialysis machine. They're just trying to keep him
alive until a liver comes available. Pam, she knows that what the
Lord does is right and good, and she's trusting him. I talked this morning and reminded
her that I know the thoughts that I have for you, thoughts
for good and not for evil, to bring you to an expected end.
And she knows that our Heavenly Father has nothing but good for
her and for Brian. My heart goes out for Charlie. Let's have a word of prayer together.
Our merciful Heavenly Father, we are thankful for your grace.
We're thankful for the hope of eternal life that we have in
thy dear son. We thank you for the testimony
of faith that you've put into the heart of Brian and Pam. Lord,
for the encouragement that they've been to us and for the hope of
knowing that whatever you do, Lord, will be right and it will
be good. We pray that you would increase
our faith, that you would cause us, Lord, to be comforted in
the hope of our salvation. We ask, Lord, selfishly, that
if it be thy will that you would preserve Brian's life here in
this world and allow us to be able to have more time with him
here. We trust, Lord, that your will
would be done. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 70. Let's stand together. Number 70. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning Our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy,
holy Merciful and mighty God in three persons, blessed Trinity. ? Holy, holy, holy ? ? All the
saints adore thee ? ? Casting down their golden crowns ? ?
Around the glassy sea ? ? Cherubim and seraphim ? ? Falling down
before thee ? which wert and art and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, though the
darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may
not see, Only Thou art holy, there is
none beside Thee, perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Please be seated. We're going
to have some special music this morning brought by two young
men from Crossville, Tennessee, Seth and Houston. No more clouds in the sky. No more tears to dim the eye. All is peace forevermore. What a day, glorious day, that
will be. What a day, that will be. When my Jesus I shall see And
I look upon His face The One who saved me by His grace When
He takes me by the hand And leads me through the promised land
What a day, glorious day that will be. There'll be no sorrow there No
more burdens to bear No more sickness, no pain No more parting
over there And forever I will be With the one who died for
me What a day, glorious day that will be. What a day that will be when
my Jesus I shall see. And I look upon his face, the
one who saved takes me by the hand and leads
me through the promised land. What a day, glorious day that
will be. What a day, glorious day that
will And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.
God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more
pain, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat
upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he
said unto me, Write. For these words are true and
faithful. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that we have a throne of grace that we can come before thy presence. Thank you that we have an advocate,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who has satisfied all by himself all
the demands of thy holy law. We thank you that he has put
away your wrath satisfied your justice through the sacrifice
of himself once and for all. We ask, Lord, that you would
cause us in this hour to get our attention off ourselves and
off the things of this world, and that you would enable us
by thy grace to set our affections on things above, where Christ
is seated at the right hand of God. We ask it in his name. Amen. If you'd like to turn with me in
your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 9, we'll continue for
the next 30 minutes or so our Bible study in this wonderful
little epistle. Some of you I haven't seen for
two weeks. Thank you for your prayers last Sunday. And I mentioned this Wednesday
night, but I want to thank Robert and Michael again for the faithful
messages that they brought here last Sunday. And for Eric, who
preached in Sarasota last Sunday night. So very, very grateful
for these men. And I'm thankful for you. Thankful for your encouragement,
for your prayers, and so thankful for the blessing that you all
have been to Pam and Brian and Charlie. This chapter ends with where
I'd like to begin, because the gospel of God's free grace begins
and ends with the unspeakable gift. Words are not sufficient. Paul considered the burden of
responsibility placed on him to preach the gospel. He said,
who is sufficient for these things? How can we possibly come up with
the words that are sufficient to express who the Lord Jesus
Christ is, first of all, and what it is he's accomplished?
And that's why we go to God's Word. And yet still we look through
a glass dimly. We see just veiled images of
our Lord with a longing hope for that day when we will see
Him face to face and be made like Him. Paul says here in verse
15, thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. inexpressible. He's talking about
the gift of salvation. He's talking about the gift of
grace, the gift of faith, the gift of regeneration, the gift
of sanctification, the gift of glorification. These are all
gifts given to us from God in Christ. All the promises of God
are yea and amen in him. He's the gift of God which makes
all the precious promises of God hopeful to our hearts as
we are enabled by his grace to look in faith to Christ. So he is the unspeakable gift. What he's accomplished in satisfying
the demands of God's holy law Everything that God requires
from Brian, from me, from you, he looks to Christ for. He has
fulfilled all righteousness and he has put away the wrath of
God. He is our propitiation. He's our surety before God. That means that he's done it
all. He's done it all. What an unspeakable gift. What
hope. God's looking to Christ for everything. That's my hope. I don't want
Him to look to me for anything. I can't produce anything that
will be acceptable before a holy God. Paul says, oh, what an unspeakable
gift. Now this is the conclusion of
the subject that he's continuing from chapter eight, talking about
giving. And I want to introduce this
chapter by making this analogy. Last Sunday morning when I was
in Kentucky getting ready to preach, I got a call from Jeff,
my son, saying that someone had broken into the building, this
building. sometime between Thursday and
Sunday. And that they had ransacked the
kitchen and jimmied open the offering box and didn't know
if they had taken anything. You know, don't know if there
was anything left in there. If anybody put any cash in there
last Wednesday night, it got taken before Sunday. And I thought,
you know, is that unconscionable act a sin? someone breaking into
a church, stealing money out of an offering box, is that something
that would need God's forgiveness for? And everybody would say,
certainly it is. Certainly it is. But that person
who did that, whoever it was, is in no more need of forgiveness
than you are and I am when we put money into the offering box. We put money in that offering
box. Lord, forgive me for any thought or any motive that I
would have in making this offering with any thought other than I'm
just an unprofitable servant. Lord, forgive me for not trusting
you with more. Forgive me for comparing myself
to other men and being so covetous and so materialistic in my... Lord, we give not for credit,
we give as an expression of our need for forgiveness. Lord, why
do I put so much of my trust in worldly things? And giving
brings all those things to mind, doesn't it? It causes us to realize
that, Lord, I'm a sinner, and I'm in need of forgiveness all
the time. So I don't want us to approach
this subject of giving, and it's clearly taught in the Word of
God, with any other thought. then we are sinners in need of
God's unspeakable gift. And I hope that that that grace
that the Lord has shown us in the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ will inspire us and encourage us to be more giving
and the more we give in every way. I'm so grateful when I hear
Pam tell me so and so has been by to see me and my heart just
swells with thanksgiving for you. for your giving of your
time and your interest in showing concern for them. And that's
my hope, is that we'll be that sort of fellowship. and I know
we are but you know Lord grow us in this grace that's what
he talked about it in Romans chapter and 2nd Corinthians chapter
8 grow in this grace also in the grace of giving not just
not materially but Lord enable me enable me to look in faith
to Christ and follow after him if we do that will be giving
people We will be in every area. Now, Paul was in Macedonia. Macedonia
would be where we would consider northern Greece today. The Church
of Philippi was in Macedonia. The Church of Thessalonica was
in Macedonia. The church at Berea was in Macedonia. That's where he was when he wrote
this letter. And he wrote it to the churches in Achaia, which
is where Corinth was, in southern Greece. And he's writing them
to say to them, I've been telling the churches in Macedonia about
your faith. And they've been so encouraged
and so inspired by what they've heard from what the Lord's doing
for you. that uh... that that it's that
it's just warm their hearts and they want to follow after your
example as well and and uh... and paul saying to them i'm leaving
macedonia and i'm coming down to visit you and i'm bringing
some of the brethren with me from macedonia and he sort of
preparing the church is down in a care in corentin in athens
to be prepared for this visit and uh... and so he says inverse
In verse 1 of chapter 9, he says, For as touching the ministry
to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write unto you, for
I know the forwardness of your mind. Now we think of that word
superfluous as being unnecessary. That's really not what it means
here. What he's saying is, I'm writing to you more than is necessary. That's what the word means. Because
I know the forwardness of your heart. I know the willingness
that God has put into your heart as you are following after Christ
to minister to the saints. That's what the Lord puts in
the hearts of His people. He puts in our hearts a desire
to minister the grace that we've received one to another. to speak
words of encouragement, to be forgiving, to esteem one another
more highly than ourselves. In one place in Galatians, the
scripture says, as you therefore have opportunity, let us seek
to do good unto all men, especially those who are of the household
of faith. And that's what Paul's saying,
he said, I know what God's put in your heart. This desire to
encourage one another, to speak truth to one another, to look
up to one another, and to encourage one another. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 16, Paul's speaking of the house of Stephen, and he
says these words, they have addicted themselves to the ministry of
the saints. I want that for you, I want that
for me. I want that for us as a church. Somebody asked me recently if
I'd ever been addicted to something. I said, my flesh will get addicted
to anything. Our flesh is so weak, isn't it? And it's so easy to get addicted
that the Lord would say, now that church is addicted to the
ministry of the saints. What a blessing. I don't want to express this from
any spirit whatsoever other than love for you. But I do want to express it along
these lines, what we're talking about right now. Occasionally,
I will hear someone make a statement about how they don't feel welcome,
whether it be in our fellowship or in, you know, they, and without
exception, without exception, as far as I can see it, people that don't feel like they
have friends are not friendly. They're not friendly. Here's
what the Lord said in Proverbs chapter 18 verse 24, if a man
wants friends, he must show himself friendly. If you addict yourself
to the ministry of the saints, you're not concerned about whether
or not people are being friendly to you, you're just going out
of your way to be friendly to others. You have more friends
than you know what to do with. That's what Paul's talking about
here. This ministry of grace that God
has put into our hearts. When you talk about the unfriendliness
of somebody, or of a group, or your inability to have, you're
just exposing yourself as an unfriendly person. Verse 2, For I know the forwardness
of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia,
that Achaia ready a year ago, and your zeal hath provoked very
many. You see, this is what I was talking
about. He's writing the Church of Corinth, and he says, I've
been telling the churches in Macedonia about you. and about
the zeal that God has given you and about the desire that he's
put into your heart and that they've been encouraged by what
they've heard the Lord doing for you yet have I sent the brethren
now Paul has sent Timothy and a couple of other brethren from
Macedonia down to Corinth with this letter to Before he goes the letter goes
before him and he so he says yet Have I sent the brethren
lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf that
as I said you may be ready I Don't want to I don't want to get down
there and and be embarrassed By you not showing the grace
that I've been telling them God's given you I That's exactly what
he's saying. As a matter of fact, he makes
that clear in the next verse. Look, lest happily, if they of Macedonia
come with me and find you unprepared, we, that is to say we, not you,
should be ashamed in this same confident boasting. Paul said,
if I get down there with these brethren from Macedonia and they
don't see exemplified in your giving, what I've been telling
them about, I'm gonna be embarrassed. It's gonna make me look like
I wasn't being truthful to them. Therefore, I thought it necessary
to exhort the brethren that they would go before unto you and
make up beforehand your bounty whereof you had noticed before
that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty and not
as covetousness. So I've sent these, the word
bounty is the word blessing. So I've sent these brethren before
you that they would prepare you to be a blessing and that there
would be no spirit of covetousness in anyone's heart. But this I
say, this I say, and this goes along with what
I was just saying about friends. He which soweth sparingly shall
reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap
also bountifully. Now, this is the law of the harvest.
This is, as Paul said, a farmer doesn't say, well, I want a huge
crop and then only plant a little garden. You want a lot of fruit,
you've got to put out a lot of seed. That's just the given. And he's applying this to every
area of life. Now, listen, I know that this
is abused in religion. You know, I've heard preachers
say, you know, if you'll give $10, God will reward you with
$100. That's not what he's talking about. And yet the principle,
the principle's there. You know, we don't, if we react
against error, we're going to err in the other direction. those
who would make works the means of salvation or even the evidence
of salvation. We would not want to err to the
other extreme to becoming antinomian and saying, well, you know, it
doesn't matter, and be irresponsible and be unfaithful and disobedient. We you see what I'm saying those
who would err in their teaching on the Holy Spirit We would we
would we would err the other way if we denied the precious
person of the Holy Spirit and our dependence upon him and our
need of him and And our asking our Heavenly Father for him The
Lord said if you being evil know how to give good gifts unto your
children how much more were you Heavenly Father give? his spirit
to them who ask him and Lord, give us your spirit. Empower
us with your spirit. So this thing of the law of the
harvest, it's very logical. You would not reward your children
with greater responsibilities and greater opportunities until
they have proven themselves to be faithful in what you've already
given them. Is that not true? you wouldn't
do that for your employees. If you've got an employee, you're
not gonna elevate your employee and promote him to a greater
responsibility if he hadn't proven himself to be faithful. And that's
all the Lord's saying here. Be faithful to what I've given
you. And they who so sparingly, if
you don't know how to be friendly, if you don't know how to be caring,
you're gonna reap sparingly. So, the Lord is speaking. This is
God's word, and here's what he says. He which soweth sparingly
shall also reap sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall
also reap bountifully. Lord, abound your grace in my
heart and cause me to trust you that I would not sow sparingly.
Turn with me to Galatians chapter 6. Galatians chapter 6 and we'll
begin reading at verse 7. Be not deceived. Don't be deceived about this.
We're so easily deceived, aren't we? We're so easily fooled, we're
so easily distracted away from Christ. Be not deceived, God
is not mocked. For whatsoever man soweth, that
he shall also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, and he that soweth to the spirit
shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be
weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap. We shall
reap. Oh Lord, give me faith. Now,
the only thing God's pleased with from you and me is for us
to return to Him that which He's given to us. We don't give anything
to God. We just return to Him what He's
given to us. The only faith that He's pleased with is the faith
that He's given us. The only offering He's pleased
with is that which we acknowledge belongs to Him anyway. The only ministry of grace that
he's pleased with is that which he puts in our hearts. So this
forwardness of the heart that Paul's talking to the churches
in Achaia about, he's saying, God put that in your heart. And
yet the Lord admonishes us to acknowledge those things that
God has given to us and to be responsible and faithful and
to give thankfully. Let's go back to our text look
what he says Excuse me Verse 7 every man according as
he has purposed in his heart It's no one's place to determine
what anyone should give Somebody says somebody asked me. Well,
how much do I got that's that's when you and God and You purpose
that in your own heart. You ask the Lord what he would
have you to do. So let him give, not begrudgingly
or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. The Lord's not twisting our arm. He's working in our hearts, causing
us to will and to do of His good pleasure, causing us to have
this desire to acknowledge His grace towards
us, the unspeakable gift. That's how He closes out this
whole chapter. Lord, do that for me. Look at verse 8, and
God is able. We could spend the next month
talking about those three words. God is able. What's He able to
do? Is He able to save? Yeah. All by Himself? Yeah. To the
uttermost? Yeah. Is He able to put away
our sins so that He sees them no more? Yeah. How? Through the
shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is He able to present
a righteousness that satisfies Him on our behalf? Yeah, through
the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is able. And we could just look at the
flip side to that coin and say, I am unable to do anything for
myself. Oh, the glorious ability of our
all-sufficient, omnipotent God. he's able. What's he able to
do here? He's able to make all grace abound
toward you. That means that this grace just
continues to grow. That's what the word abound means.
He's not just talking about he's able to give you grace right
now for this situation. He's able to grow you in his
grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what I want for you. That's what I want for me. That's
what I want for our church. I want the Lord to do that for
us. And the means by which he's going to do that is the teaching
of his word. This is the means that he uses. I made this statement recently. Will God's people be giving people?
Yes. Do God's people need to be taught
and reminded and instructed to give? Yes. This is the means
that the Lord reminds us and teaches us. God is able to make
all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency
in all things, may abound every good work. I've got everything
I need in Christ. Everything I need. And when we
give, whatever it is, we don't pat ourselves on the back. We
don't talk like religious people and tell people what we've done.
The right hand doesn't tell the left hand what it's doing. Why? Because the right hand is ashamed
of what it's doing, even when it's doing the right thing. Even
when it's making an offering, even when it's ministering help
to someone, it's ashamed of what it's doing because it knows that
everything it's doing needs God's forgiveness. So we don't go around
boasting in what we've done and telling people, you know, how
we're serving the Lord. And yet, we are. We are to All these, well, Paul put it
like this in Ephesians, that we are his workmanship. We are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he hath ordained that we
should walk in them. But we're following after Christ,
we're walking after these things, why? Because he's ordained it
to be. And we're his workmanship. Verse nine, as it is written,
he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness
remaineth forever. His righteousness remaineth forever. The Lord Jesus Christ is seated
right now at the right hand of the majesty of God and he's not
moving. And He's our righteousness. And
He remaineth forever. Now he that ministereth seed
to the sower, that's the Lord. Now right now, I'm the sower. And God has given me some seed.
to share with you. He's the one who's ministered
seed to the sower. Both minister bread for your
food. Here's our hope. That as God
has given me seed, I'm just like the farmer, trying to scatter
the seed. And trusting that that seed's
going to take root and produce fruit in the hearts of God's
people. Some 30, some 60, some 100. But it'll be fruitful. I used
this illustration one time. I said, you know, that was the farmers,
you know, the farmer scatters the seed and some produce 30-fold
and some 60-fold and some 100-fold. And I said, it's kind of like
light bulbs. You know, it's a 30-watt bulb or a 60-watt bulb or a 100-watt
bulb. And one brother came to me afterwards.
He said, well, I just hope mine's a 1-watt bulb. But you know what? That's all
we've got is 1 watt. That's light. That's light. Where there's light, darkness
cannot overcome light. Light always pushes away darkness,
regardless of how dim that light. Lord, shine your light in my
heart and cause it to increase. Abound your grace in me. This is the bread for our food.
and multiply your seed sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness
being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeth
through us thanksgiving to God. See, we don't go around boasting
on ourselves. We thank God. He's the one that did it. For the administration of this
service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant
also by many thanksgiving to God. So what Paul's saying to
the churches in Achaia, he said, your ministry, your giving and
the abundance that God's put in your heart is not only ministering
to the needs of the saints, but it's also causing other saints
to rejoice in Christ for what he's doing through you. While by the, now the word experiment
is the word prove, while by the proof of this ministration, they
glorify God, for your professed subjection unto the gospel of
Christ. It's always about subjection
to the gospel of Christ. Whatever we do, out of any other, we're always subject. to the
gospel. And for your liberal distribution
unto them and unto all men, and by their prayer for you which
long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. It's all
about the grace of God in you. All about His grace. That's given
to God's people. when they are brought to see
the unspeakable gift of His grace in the forgiveness of our sin
and the hope of eternal life through the glorious accomplished
work and person of the Lord Jesus Christ. May God give us His grace
and make us a giving people. All right, let's take a break. Thank you.