2 Corinthians chapter 8. In verse
16, Paul says, but thanks be to God which put the same earnest care
into the heart of Titus for you. For indeed he accepted the exhortation. They had asked him to go back
to Corinth to finish taking up this gift to take to the church
at Jerusalem. And he says, Indeed he accepted
the exhortation, but being more forward, more willing of his
own accord, he went unto you. And we've sent with him the brother
whose praise or whose commendation 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,
which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord. And declaration of your ready
mind. Avoiding this, this is why they
sent the multiple brethren. Avoiding this, that no man should
blame us in this abundance which is ministered by us, providing
for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also
in the sight of men. And we've sent with them our
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's 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 ye to them and before the
churches the proof of your love and of our boasting on your behalf."
Now notice there in verse 19, the gift is administered by us
to the glory of the Lord. To the glory of the Lord. And
then notice in verse 21, the gift is administered honestly
in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of men. and then
notice in verse 23, the messengers that administered the gift are
called the glory of Christ. Now our subject today is the
glory of giving. Now we've been looking at this
8th chapter, we've seen the grace of giving, all of God's grace,
we saw the spirit of giving, the spirit God gives in the heart,
we've seen the The encouragement of giving which is not law, Paul
beseeched them. We've seen the motive of giving. Christ who was rich became poor
that His people through His poverty might be made rich. That's the
motive. We're constrained by the love
of Christ. We saw the purpose of giving. which is not that
you just keep supporting a brother that's on hard time so that he
can just take his ease and your burden with supporting him. It's
so that he'll be eased right now, but then when he has abundance,
he'll help you. It's equality. That's the purpose
of giving. God does everything right in
His church. That's grace. That's not communism.
That's not socialism. That's the grace of God working
in the heart. Makes you not want to take advantage of your brethren.
And so today now we see the glory of giving. And the glory of giving,
the saints who do the giving, the way in which they give, and
the ministers that are used to administer the gift to those
who need it, is all the glory of Christ. His people, the way
we minister, and the ministers who administer it are all the
glory of Christ. Now, let's try to understand
what this amazing truth means. Christ's people, and in this
aspect of worship called giving, and it is an aspect of worship. Giving is part of worship. And
in this, the saints and then this aspect of worship called
giving is all the glory of Christ. Now go to Isaiah 28. I want you
to see this. Now we can understand what this
verse means right here. Isaiah 28 and verse 5. It says here, Isaiah 25, In that
day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory and for
a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his people. Now a believer
who receives, we receive everything in salvation from Christ. Everything
we receive, we receive from Christ. Every aspect of our salvation.
So we can understand how the Lord is a crown of glory to us. I understand that. He is my crown
of glory. Christ is. I get everything from
Him. He is my glory in every sense
because He is all in my salvation. He is my wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. So that's easy to grasp how He's
all to us. But now go to Isaiah 62. Isaiah
62. This is what's not so easy to
comprehend. Isaiah 62. This is what our text
is saying too. The same thing our text is saying.
Isaiah 62 3. Talking to God's people, He says,
Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. He's not describing
what God shall be to His church right here. He's describing what
His church is to Him. Thou shalt be a crown of glory
in the hand of the Lord. Thou shalt be a royal diadem
in the hand of thy God. And that's what our text is doing.
It's not saying what Christ is to us, it's saying what we are
to Christ. Every sanctified child of God that Christ has made holy,
sanctified to set apart and been made holy by Christ, that child
is Christ's glory. Every child that He came and
laid down His life for and redeemed by His blood, that child is Christ's
glory. Everybody He regenerates and
gives a heart to believe on Him and trust Him, that believer
is Christ's glory. So, our text is telling us all
His saints, this ministry of giving and those who administer
it are all the glory of Christ. You know, a king, you take this
picture down. You shall be a crown in the hand
of the Lord, a royal diadem in His hand. You take a picture
of a king and he takes a crown in his hand and he's looking
at this crown. It's his crown and he's looking
at it and this crown is his glory. This crown is His glory. This
crown is on display to show that He is really the King. And that
all power really is His. And that He rules this whole
kingdom. This is really His. That's what that crown, it's
His glory. Well, that's what Christ's people
are. They are the display that Christ
takes in His hand and shows. His glory. This is my glory.
This shows I am the sovereign king. I am the sovereign savior.
I am the one who does everything to save my people. That's what
His people are to Christ. And He delights in His people
just like a king delights in his crown. Now Isaiah, I'm using
it to help us understand our text. And I want you to understand
this. It doesn't say that His people
are a crown upon His head. And that's important. It says
it's a crown in His hand. We're not a crown upon His head
because this would be the meaning of that. We don't add glory to
Christ. Nothing we do adds any glory
to Christ. Christ has an essential glory
that is all His own. And we don't add to that. Christ
as the person of the... and His person is God. And you
can't add to His glory. He's one with the Father and
the Holy Spirit. You can't add to that glory. And even in His
works as a mediator that He did for His people, that's His glory.
And we don't add to that glory. So He's not saying that we add
to His glory in any way. That's not what He's saying.
And He's not talking about us glorying in Him. All God's people
glory in Him. We give Him all the glory for
all things in our salvation. It's by His grace that He took
His chosen bride that the Father chose and He betrothed His bride
to Himself in eternity of His will because He would. And then
He came and redeemed us by His will because He would. And then
He sends the gospel to us, teaches us the gospel because He will.
These are things we glory in Him for doing. We give Him all
the glory. But that's not what our text
is talking about. We are a crown in His hand that
He holds up and admires. Isaiah 53.11 says this, He shall
see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. Ladies,
when you travail in childbirth, what is your travail that you
see? Do you look at your suffering?
Is that what you're looking at? Is that the travail you see and
are satisfied with? No. It's what that travail produced. You hold up that child in your
arms and you see the travail and you're satisfied. That's
what it's talking about. Christ looks at His child and
He sees the travail of His soul. He sees what His travail on the
cross accomplished and He's satisfied. He's satisfied. He glories in
that one. He sees one robed in His righteousness,
redeemed by His blood. He sees one who is the glory
of His workmanship, the glory of His skill, one who is His
masterpiece, one who is His glory. And He delights in that one that
He made, everything He did. Psalm 19 says, the heavens declare
the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork. You go
out there sometimes, I remember a few years back when we were
out on the west coast and we went camped out on the beach
one night and we watched the moon rise and we just sat there
and I mean that canopy of stars as far as you could see over
the ocean and we just sat there We're looking at God's glory,
His workmanship, His masterpiece that He created as far as creation,
earthly creation goes. But His people, that new heavens
and new earth that He creates, that's truly His masterpiece. And just like you see the glory
of God in this heavens and this earth, you look to that new creation,
His people, and you see His glory. the glory of His handiwork, the
glory of His skill and what He created. And so, we're His glory,
we're His satisfaction, we're His happiness, His inheritance,
His delight, the monument of His love and grace to what He
can accomplish. In election, in our election,
we're the glory of His sovereignty and His grace. The reason we love the doctrine
of election is We behold the glory of God's sovereign power
to choose whomever He will and pass by whom He will. We see
God's sovereign grace to save just simply by His grace, simply
because He would, not because of anything in us. You see what
I'm saying? You see His glory in these things.
When we look and see our redemption, we see the glory of His mercy. Aren't you thankful for His mercy
that He has mercy on us and withholds from us what we deserve? But
we also see there His truth. He would not spare us and show
mercy to us unless that law was executed upon us justly. And so we see the mercy, the
glory of His mercy and truth and how He can make it harmonized.
When we see our regeneration, we see the glory of His power
and the glory of His grace. You know, you think back on your
life before you knew the Lord. We were talking about it last
night, Russell. And you see where you were and
what you were into and the things that were going on. And you look
and you see God's power to work everything together to bring
you out of that and bring you under the sound of the gospel. give you a new heart and bring
you to believe Him. You see His glory in that. You
see the glory in our preservation. You see the glory of His wisdom
and His goodness. I love that illustration Arthur
Pink gives about about God's preserving grace. He talked about
if you were to take a candle, a little candle that's lit and
you would try to go from the Jersey Shore across that big
bay up there and go up the river up there and carry that candle
while Hurricane Sandy is blowing and that candle never go out.
And he said that's God's preserving power to carry His child through
this world and that light of His grace never go out. Isn't
that a beautiful illustration? We see the glory of God's wisdom
and goodness and His immutability. In our resurrection, we see the
glory of His life and the glory of His power again. His life
is going to be why His people cannot die. The grave has no
claim on us. We are going to come out of the
tomb. because of the glory of His life. And in glorification,
when He brought us all around the throne of His glory in heaven,
we're going to be the monuments of His glory, the glory of His
purpose. And from the beginning, purposing
to save a people without spot, without blemish, present them
all to Himself and not lose one. You're going to see the glory
of Him being able to complete that which He determined from
the very beginning. and bring it to pass. So God's
people are His glory, Christ's glory. Now let's look here briefly
and let's see how we're Christ's glory in this ministry of giving
for needy brethren. I want to start by giving you
another passage that I think will help us understand this.
Proverbs 10.1 says, A wise son maketh a glad father. A wise son maketh a glad father,
but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. I tell my children
when they're out in the world to always remember that my name
is upon them. Will has a very good friend that
recently did something that he wasn't supposed to do and he
got in trouble. He snuck out at night and the
police caught him. and brought him to the station
and his mom and dad had to come pick him up. And I was talking
to him the other night at Will's house and one of the things he
said was, one thing I realized is I brought dishonor on my father
and on my family because now everybody's looking at me and
thinking this is how my father raised me and this is what he
taught me and I brought dishonor to it. And I said, Will, did
you hear that? That's exactly what I mean when
we're talking. And I say, when you're out there
in the world, young people, you have the name of your father
on you. And so you're going to either be a foolish child and
bring dishonor to your father and mother or you'll be a wise
child and obey what they've taught you and you'll be their glory. When other people brag on them
and talk about what a good child you are, That will be their glory,
to their glory, to their credit for what they did in raising
you the way you ought to be raised. Well, the same applies with Christ
and His children. The earnest care of His people
toward one another. When we have an earnest care
in our heart toward one another, that's Christ's glory because
He put that care there. Look here in verse 16. Thanks
be to God which put the earnest care into the heart of Titus
for you. You know, we don't... Scripture
says that by nature we hate one another. Everything we do by
nature, there's no selfless motive in anything we've ever done by
nature and come into this world. But when Christ gives you a new
heart, there's a new man He puts in His child and you do some
things now because you have an earnest care that Christ put
there. You behold that brother, that
sister as being the nearest thing on this earth to Christ your
Redeemer. And Christ said what you've done
to them, you have done to me. And there's an earnest care now
in your heart for them. You don't want to see a needy
brother suffer. We were talking about Brother
Larry Chris yesterday about him being sick. And one of the first
questions somebody asked me was, do they need some help? Because
you care about your brethren. Do you care about your brethren?
Well, that's the glory of Christ. Look here in verse 17, Titus
accepted the exhortation and he was forward, he was willing
of his own will, of his own accord and went to Corinth to finish
the work. Do you see the glory of Christ in that? From eternity
when the Father when the Father presented His chosen people to
Christ, He received the exhortation and was willing of His own accord
to come to where we are and to save His people from our sins.
The scripture says, Hebrews 12, 2 says, Christ is the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
Him, That joy of His people, He accepted, He had earnest care
and He accepted the exhortation and was willing of His own accord
and He came forth for that joy set before Him and endured the
cross, despising the shame. That means He finished the work. The reason Titus is going forth
is, Paul says, we exhort you to finish what you started. And
Christ came forth and He finished what He started. And so, when
he puts that care into the heart of Titus, now you see Titus as
a reflection of Christ's glory, doing in a small way what reflects
what Christ did for His people. He had earnest care for His people,
to go to His people, to work the work necessary in the midst
of His people. That's what Christ did. You know,
a father and a mother are well pleased and they take delight
when they see their children care for one another. because
it reflects their care for them and it reflects what they've
taught them to care for one another. So they delight in that. They
sit and they delight in that. Well, Christ, His people are
His glory that He delights in because He put that earnest care
in our heart and He taught us to care for one another. And
then He brought it forth and then He holds us up and says,
here's my glory. It's what I created. And the
way in which we administer this gift is for Christ's glory. It is the glory of Christ. Look
at verse 18 and 19. We've sent with Him the brother
whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches.
Here was a faithful brother that the church chose because he was
faithful to the gospel. And it says, and not that only,
but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with
this grace. He was entrusted to carry these
riches that the church was giving. And it says, which is administered
by us to the glory of the same Lord and to manifest your ready
mind. Here's why they carried these
brethren with them. 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. You see this brother who's faithful.
This brother who is so faithful the church chose him. And the
church entrusted him to take this gift. That's the glory of
Christ. That's the glory of Christ. Not
only did Christ make him faithful, not only did Christ make him
delight in the gospel, but it's a reflection of Christ Himself.
Christ was chosen. He's chosen and faithful. That's
who He is. And God entrusted Him. What did
He entrust Him with? Unsearchable riches. To bring
those riches and give those riches to His people. And so Christ
has made that chosen brother. We don't even know who his name
is. That's not the important thing. He wouldn't want us to
know who his name is. The important thing is he's Christ's
glory. That's the important thing. He's
Christ's glory. And they sent multiple brethren
because they wanted to administer so that no man could blame them
in anything. They didn't want Christ's name
to be disparaged in any way. They wanted everything to be
above board, honest. This was for their own safety.
It wasn't because they didn't trust somebody. It was so that
nobody could, you know, if it's just one person, somebody could
lay a charge to them and there's nobody to show that it's not
so. But if they got two or three
brethren, they can say, well, there's no collusion here. And
so that's That's why they did it. But that's the glory of Christ
too. He makes His people to want to
do everything the way He did everything to us. Christ came
into this earth and He walked before this earth and He ministered
to us abundantly in this earth in a way that no man could blame
Him for anything. They couldn't charge Him. The
only way they charged Christ with anything was to lie because
they couldn't charge Him with anything. He provided things
honest for us. Do you know the reason He came
is to manifest the honesty of God? That's why He came to the
cross. To manifest that the judge of
all the earth shall do what is right. Always. And what He was
doing on that cross was manifesting God's integrity, God's holiness,
God's perfect righteousness that He will not just sweep sin under
the rug and we'll just ignore that sin and I'll have mercy
on you. That's not justice. Justice wasn't carried out if
He did that. God says, no, we're going to carry out the justice.
I'm sinning my son. And he's going to become sin
for my people. And my law is going to look at
him and say, he is the one that must die. And so I'm going to
pour out wrath on him, justice on him, and he's going to pay
the eternal judgment that his people owe. So that not only
is their sin debt paid, their crimes are erased from off the
record books. and He's going to be their righteousness.
And I'm going to have mercy on them. Now God's been just and
merciful. And neither one's been tainted
in any way. So everything He did, the only
reason Christ came was to manifest God's honesty, God's integrity,
to do everything above board. And so these men who want to
do this, these men who want to carry out just a simple thing
as picking up an offering from one church and taking it to another
church, they wanted to do it in a way that was just like Christ
redeemed them. And so, that's a reflection of
Christ. That's everything He worked,
so they're Christ's glory. I'll give you another scripture
that illustrates this. Proverbs 12 verse 4 says, A virtuous
woman is a crown to her husband. A virtuous woman is a crown to
her husband. It says an unfaithful woman is
a rottenness in his bone. But a faithful woman is a crown
to him. It's saying a virtuous woman
is the glory of her husband. He likes to brag on her. And
one of the reasons she's faithful is because she sees what a good
husband he is to her. Christ has made his bride a virtuous
woman. And his virtuous bride, she won't
turn away from him. People won't turn away from him.
and therefore they're His glory. His bride is His glory. Now lastly,
we'll briefly look at these couple of things. Knowing that the believer,
that Christ's people are His glory, that we're His crown,
second to Christ, His people should be our primary concern.
His people should be our primary concern. So that means we should
give ourselves using everything that Christ has given to us to
send forth this gospel to gather jewels for His crown. to gather
up jewels for the crown, for His crown, that's His glory.
That means no cost is too great, no labor is too intensive, when
we know that with Christ's glory, when we're His instrument being
used in His hand to send forth His gospel to gather out of this
earth one of His riches. They make up that crown that
is His glory. Just imagine, if the Lord used
you and me to send the gospel forth and just saved one sinner,
just one sinner, wouldn't that make us... wouldn't you be a
crown of glory in Christ's hand? Wouldn't He be able to say, look
what I did with these people? Look what I did with these people.
That's our motive, isn't it? That's our motive to want to
send this gospel forth. And then, knowing that we're
Christ's glory, let us give generously to help one another in every
time of need with all honesty and integrity. All honesty and
integrity. That's how Christ is ministered
to us. And that's what it is. You don't have to coerce God's
people to giving. God's people are cheerful givers.
That's what Christ makes them. Christ creates them that way
and they are. But we obviously need to be reminded
that these things wouldn't be in the Scripture. We have an
old man of sin with us. That old man of sin is a frugal
mausoleum. He don't care about nobody. So
we need to hear Christ speak through His Word reminding us
what He's made us. Keep us being generous. And then
three, knowing that we're a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty
in Christ's hand, let us take care how we represent Him in
this world. Just like we want our children
to represent us. Don't you find, brethren... Go to Philippians
2. I want to talk a little bit while you're turning there. Don't
you find that when you're trying to teach your children and instruct
your children in positive ways and even when you have to correct
your children, don't you just see yourself before your Heavenly
Father sometimes? Especially when I have to correct
my children and I find the things I'm saying to them, I'm thinking,
this is exactly what my Heavenly Father says to me. You know,
won't you just listen to me? and believe me and do what I
tell you to do. It's just that simple, you know. And so, just like our children
are our delight, knowing that we are the crown of glory in
Christ, that's the motive for wanting to live in a way that
honors Him, brings honor to Him. Listen to this, Philippians 2.15,
Here's the reason, that you may be blameless and harmless, the
sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and
perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Where did you get that light?
It didn't come from us. It came from Christ. We're His
glory. Holding forth the word of life,
that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run
in vain, neither labored in vain. Look at Philippians 4.1. I can
say this of you. Philippians 4.1, Paul said, Therefore
my brethren, dearly beloved, and long for my joy and my crown. That's God's minister. The people He ministers to are
His joy and His crown. Just like we are Christ's joy
and His crown. Just like our children are our
joy and our crown. And here's how we honor Him. Stand fast in the Lord. Stand
fast in the Lord. Don't move a hair from Christ. Stand fast in the Lord. Don't
look to your works, don't look to your will, don't look to anything
you've ever done in this world. Look to Christ only. He's all
in all. We don't need anything but Christ. Now if you're here, all these
things I've been saying here that will be honoring to Him,
you do those things. But you don't look to those things, you
look to Christ. Stand fast in the Lord. Alright
brethren, let's take a short break. Let's stand together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You for the Word. We thank You for The things you've shown us
in this chapter, something that we usually skip over and don't
say much about. And you've shown us Christ throughout
it and rejoiced our hearts in it and made us appreciate this
ministry of giving more. Keep us ever mindful, Lord, to
think on these things we've seen here when we try to provide for
our needy brethren. Help us to remember these things
that the graces of You and the spirits of You and the... It's all of grace, not law. Help us to remember these things.
And Lord, make Christ our only motive. Make Him our only constraint
for anything we do. And Lord, we ask You, look upon
Him. Don't look to us, look to Him.
And receive us in Him. without spot, without blemish,
justified, without sin, receive us as He is. For His sake, for His honor,
for His glory, we ask it in His name. Amen.