Alright brethren, let's go to
2 Corinthians chapter 8. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. We'll begin in verse 13. For I mean not that other men
be eased, and ye 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, that there may be equality. As it is written, he that had
gathered much had nothing over, and he that had gathered little
had no lack. Paul is saying to us that the
purpose of giving is that there be equality. And by that he means
that each believer shall help his brother at a time when that
brother has need. So, this time the Macedonians
are prospered and they would help the brethren at Jerusalem. Next time, When Jerusalem is
prospered and the Macedonian brethren need help, Jerusalem
will help the Macedonian brethren. That's what he's speaking about
when he talks about equality. So that the burden doesn't fall
on any one church. Believers are taking care of
each other at the time of need, when there is a need. So the
subject is the purpose of giving. I was thinking when I started
going through 2 Corinthians 8, I thought I'll preach probably
one message on giving and then move on. But this has been a
very profitable study through this chapter. Everything in it
is glorifying to Christ. So it's my own foolishness to
think to just preach one message out of it. We've seen first of
all that the source of giving is the grace of God. All this
comes by God's grace. We don't muster up this in us.
It's all given by God's grace. We saw the spirit of giving.
It's the heart God gives which is willing, joyful, and generous. We saw the order of giving. First
to God. Without faith, there's no pleasing
the Lord. A man can do all the religious
works he wants to do, but unless he's first, Believed on Christ
is to no avail. So first to God and then to brethren. We saw the character of giving.
God gives a new heart. A new heart that desires to honor
God, to help brethren, and by this it manifests that all the
other graces God has given are the genuine gift of God. And
then we saw the encouragement to giving. Paul didn't say this
was a law. Paul didn't tell them you have
to tithe. Tithing is law. Tithing was a
tax. Paul said, I beseech you. Encouragement
is not law. Encouragement is grace. And then
the motive. We saw Christ's love for His
people in that though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became
poor that we through His poverty might be made rich. That's the
motive. We're constrained by the love
of Christ. With God, motive is everything.
God looks on the heart. And the motive is the love of
Christ constraining us. That's why it's not law. It's
love and it's grace. Then last time we saw the acceptance
of giving. He said, if there be first a
willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath,
not according to that he hath not. God's not looking on strictly
the amount that's given. He's looking at what you have
and how you give in proportion to what you have. The widow gave
more than all the rich folks because she gave all she had. It wasn't but two mites, but
she gave all she had. The rich gave much more than
that, but they had much more than that. And so the Lord said
she gave more than they all. Now, we see the purpose of giving.
The purpose is not to ease poor brethren. That's not the purpose. Not to ease them of their responsibilities
in life. He says here, verse 13, I mean
not that other men be eased and ye burdened. It's not to ease
those that are poor and fallen on hard times. It's not to ease
them of their responsibility to support their family. And
it's not to put the burden on wealthier people to support the
poor brethren all the time. That's not the purpose. That
would ease the poor brethren of their responsibility. If the
poor brethren knew that from here on out, my wealthier brethren
are going to support me, then he's at ease. He knows I got
a steady income now. It's not that. The Scripture
says, if any would not work, neither should he eat. Neither
should he eat. The purpose is that there may
be equality between all brethren and all churches to help at different
times of need. He said there in verse 14. But
by an equality that now at this time, your abundance may be a
supply for their want, that, and you can write in here, at
another time, their abundance also may be a supply for your
want. That there may be equality. You
see that at this time Macedonia could help. He said at another
time Jerusalem will help you. This is what he means by equality. So the purpose is not to take
advantage of the wealthier. It's not to burden the wealthier
to support the poor all the time. It is to make it so that we equally
share in the support of needy brethren. Now, secondly, because
that's the case, I want you to understand that this is not socialism. This is not communism. I've had
men, more than one, read Acts chapter 2 where it says they
had all things common. They brought all their substance
and divided amongst themselves and had all things common. And
folks would say, well, that's communism. No, no, no, no, no. Socialism and communism is a
man-made government enforced upon natural men, unregenerate
men by force of law all the time. All the time. The natural heart
Unregenerate heart and a poor sinner will make him take advantage
of a wealthy man's support. You don't think that's the case?
In our country we have a welfare system and many times those who
are on welfare just take advantage of it and take their ease and
just stay on welfare. Never trying to get off of it. They're trying to find ways they
can get more money through it. That's the unregenerate heart
that will work in a center under a man-made government. The poor
will neglect his responsibilities. He'll just live off the welfare
of the wealthy. And the poor unregenerate sinner
will justify it. He'll justify. We're master justifiers. All of us are by nature. We still
do that because we still have this sinful flesh with us. It's
an awful, awful thing. A poor, unregenerate sinner will
justify the fact that, well, that wealthier man has it to
give and I need it. So it's judged. That's the way
of the natural heart. It's the way of the natural heart.
And at the same time, when the wealthier burden to continually
support the poor by force of law, by tax, Then what happens
is the natural heart makes that wealthier man grudgingly pay
the tax. Or makes him cheat to get out
ways to get out from under it. But that's the unregenerate heart.
It makes him... And then when he does give to
the poor, it'll make him exalt himself over the poor, calling
him their benefactor. Remember what Christ said? He
said, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them,
and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. They want to be recognized. They
want to be recognized. So, in a man's government, there's
no scriptural equality. In socialism, communism, in a
welfare state, there's no equality. that Paul is speaking about here
because it's not that one is poor at one time and he'll be,
everybody will give to get him back on his feet and then when
he has abundance, when this other one's hit hard times, he'll help
him. It's not that way in a man-made
government. It's always the wealthier supporting the poor and there's
no equality. There's nothing like what we're
talking about here. There's a constant selfish self-justifying
on one side and a constant begrudging spirit on the other. And that's the case too in man-made
religious circles, so-called churches where men are forced
to do what they do by law. You want to meet some miserable,
unhappy people? Go in most churches. where they're
doing what they're doing by law. They don't want to be doing what
they're doing. That's why they make such statements like, if
I heard a gospel priest like you preach, I'd do what I want
to do. Thank God, God's people do what
we want to do. By a new heart He's given us,
we do what we want to do. Now thirdly, in our text, this
is the work of God. This is not the work of man.
This is the work of grace. It's not the work of law. He
says in verse 15, to show us this, in verse 15 he says, As
it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over, and he
that had gathered little had no lack. Now you know this refers
to the wilderness when the children of Israel were murmuring against
God that they didn't have anything to eat, and God rained down manna
from heaven. He rained down manna from heaven.
And he told them, he said, you go out every morning and you
gather up what you need. Just what you need. Well, some
had greater needs, so some went out and they gathered up a greater
amount. Some had less needs, so they went out and gathered
up a less amount. And then they were to bring it,
all bring it, and put it in one pile, and measure it out, and
add an omer to it. And whenever man did that, every
man had just what he needed. Nobody had more, nobody had less. That was a miracle of God's grace. You couldn't do that naturally.
You couldn't make that happen naturally. Men all over the world
that have tried to emulate God's government have never been able
to do it. This is the work of God. This
is the work of God. This was supernatural by God. Now what do we learn from that? First of all, Christ is our bread. He is our sustenance and our
provision. Christ is. Christ is. We far too much think that the
almighty dollar is our life. and our provision and our protection. No, it is not. Christ is. Christ
is. He is the head over His church
and He providentially works to provide for all. Christ provides
everything, everybody, every living thing in the earth, man
and beast has. He provides it. The Scripture
says, Thou openest Thy hand and satisfy the desire of every living
thing. We move and live and have our
being in Him. We get everything from God our
Savior. All living things do. But especially
Christ will see to it that His church has full provision. That's why David said, I've been
young and now am old. And yet, I have not seen the
righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." Never. Christ provides for His people.
He went to Calvary's cross and He has provided us acceptance
with God. It's not that we accept God,
it's God accepts us. That's provided in Christ. God
chose us, His people in Christ, blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Him before the world was made. In heaven He did this. And Christ came and redeemed
His people and put away our sin and brought us to God spotless
and we are accepted in the Beloved. He's given us acceptance. We
didn't earn it. We didn't desire it. He gave
it to us freely. We have in Christ, we have full
provision. We'll never be separated from
the love of God in Christ. Not only do we have no condemnation,
not only do we have acceptance, we'll never be separated from
the love of God in Christ. And so that's the first thing.
And because He provided us everything in salvation, Christ will provide
everything we need in this daily life so that we can worship and
honor Him and promote His name. I guarantee you He will. I guarantee
you He will. If you see a brother, it looks
like he's fallen on a hard time Poor, needy, it's not that he's
been made to beg bread or that Christ has forsaken him. It's
that Christ is turning him and teaching him, Christ is his bread,
Christ is his life, Christ is his provider and Christ will
provide. And he's going to use his wealthy
brethren that he's taught this to and prospered to give to this
poor believer and he's going to teach him that through this
ministry of giving. Number two, it declares that
the equality of Christ's provision. Each morning when they went out,
manna was provided every morning. Do you know that every morning,
every new day, Christ provides for you and me, His people, every
single day? It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed because His compassions fail not. They are
new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness. That's the first thing we see
in this thing is He's providing and He will provide. He's faithful
to provide every single day. And when measured with an omer,
when they took what they gathered, if a man gathered much or if
a man gathered less, when they put it all together and they
measured it out with an omer, every man had measured to him
exactly what he needed. You know what that teaches us? Christ is measuring grace to
His people exactly according to what we need. all the time,
exactly according to what we need, so that we have an exact
sufficiency all the time. Can't you say that's true, believer?
That's always been the case in my life ever since God called
me. That's what I've been... I can look back on my life as
a believer and say, I've always had an exact sufficiency of what
I needed all the time. He said, Paul said, not that
we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves.
And don't we do that? Don't we do that? Don't we get
a promotion at work? Who is the first one to wheel
pad on our back? Us. We come into some profit and
we think, oh boy, look how wise I was to work that out. Just as it's true with our salvation
that we're not sufficient of ourselves to work righteousness
or holiness or any such thing, in our daily lives the sufficiency
is not of us. Just as true as the sufficiency
is not of God's preacher to preach the gospel, it's not of us to
support ourselves. Our sufficiency is of God, the
Scripture said. He said unto me, My grace is
sufficient for thee. My grace is sufficient. Listen
to this from Deuteronomy 33, 25. This is what He told the
children of Israel right here. And this is true of all His people.
Thy shoes shall be iron and brass. That means nothing is going to
hurt your feet. Your shoes shall be iron and brass. Now listen
to this. And as thy days, so shall thy strength be. If you live to be 30 years old,
as a believer, all your days Christ will be your strength.
If you live to be 100 years old, as a believer, all your days
Christ will be your strength. As your days, so shall be your
strength. Now we always have exactly what
we need because our Heavenly Father is always providing us
grace for today. Grace for today. That's teaching
us to look to Him right now. Right now. Right now. He doesn't require you to look
to Him tomorrow, today. Tomorrow hasn't even got here
yet. Just today, look to Him right now. Trust Him right now.
And so He gives grace for right now. Grace for today. That's why Christ said, Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. That's why
He gives you grace for today. So that right now, today, you
don't have to be worried about anything else. You can seek Christ
preeminently. It doesn't matter where you are
in life, where you feel confident that you have enough, or you
don't feel confident that you have enough money. Because of
God's grace, you have what you're supposed to have, and you have
enough, and He's going to provide. So right now, where you are today,
you can worship Christ preeminently. Christ said, Seek ye first, preeminently,
all the time, only the righteousness of God. And all the other things
you need shall be added to you. Now listen to what He said here.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow. Don't be running
around anxious and worrying about, oh, what am I going to do tomorrow?
How am I going to pay this? What am I going to do about this
tomorrow? And all these things. Don't take any anxious thought
for tomorrow. When tomorrow gets here, you
know what's going to happen? God will provide grace for today. So that you can, without worry,
worship Christ preeminently and know God's going to add all the
other things you need. That's what he's saying. Take
no thought for tomorrow. Tomorrow shall take thought for
the things of itself. Now, God commanded them in the
wilderness not to lay up bread. He commanded them, don't go out
and collect more than you need and lay it up. Because they were
to trust that tomorrow, when they went out, God would provide
for them. And so those that went out and
gathered up extra, they gathered up more. And they did that because
they weren't trusting God would do what He said He would do.
And therefore, God made that extra they gathered up to breed
worms and stink. And you know that that's the
case because the day before the Sabbath day, because He would
show a picture of Christ, He provided all they needed the
day before. So that on Sabbath day they could
just rest. But all that extra they gathered
up the day before, it didn't breed worms and stink. Because
God was in that. And the picture there is Christ
has provided us all we need to be accepted of God so that through
faith in Christ we can just rest. He's our Sabbath. We rest in
Him. But those who gathered up extra,
they showed they didn't believe God and it bred worms and it
stank. Now brethren, when we disobey
God and we start laying up more than is needed, we're not believing
God. Now that does not mean you can't
save for your children. You should save for your children.
The Scripture says the children ought not to lay up for the parents,
but the parents for the children. But when a man's needs are met
and then he lays up for his children, but he keeps laying up for his
children and keeps laying up for his children so that he got
so much laid up that his kids are never going to want for anything.
That man is just like that fellow who had so much that he didn't
know what to do with it. He tore down his old barns and
built new barns and when you have that kind of That kind of
treasure laid up, it proves that your treasure is not the Lord,
it's your money. That's what it proves. That's
exactly what Scripture says. Christ said, "...Lay not up for
yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt, where thieves do not break through nor steal." And
here's why. Because where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also. You see what I'm saying? The
man who has more than he needs, more than he can possibly spend.
We watched something last night about this fellow who had seven
and a half million dollars and his wife wanted a divorce. And
he was bound and determined he was not going to split that money
with her. Three and a half million wasn't enough for him. And so
he killed her. And he got to keep all the money.
He went to jail and he had a child and he wouldn't even give his
child any money. He can't spend the money. He's
in a six by six cell. He can't spend the money. But
he just wanted to have it. Just wanted to have it. Isn't
that a fool? That's what God said. That's
a fool. And we don't want to be like
that, man. It breeds sorrow and disappointment and vexation and
trouble. You ever notice that when rich
folks leave a whole bunch of money, more than their kids can
spend, their kids end up spoiled, rotten, spend it all, end up
just horrible citizens. It breeds worms and stinks. And
God sees to it. Solomon said this in Ecclesiastes
5.13, There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely
riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches
perish by evil travail. And he begetteth a son, and there
is nothing in his hand. As he came forth of his mother's
womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take
nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his hand. And
this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so
shall he go. And what profit hath he that
hath labored for the wind? All his days also he eateth in
darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness."
It breeds worms and stings. You see, that's the opposite
of trusting God. It's the opposite of trusting
God. It's no different than if we went out and said, well, I
just believe I need to try to keep this law and that law and
the other law just in case Christ is not enough. Well, if I have
to do that, Christ is not enough. I don't believe Him at all if
I'm doing that. But where God works grace in the heart and
He brings us to rest on Christ, trust Him for all provision,
here's what He works. You see it in his church today
just like you saw it in the early church. The brother that he's
prospered, who has some wealth, he'll give to his needy brother
willingly, joyfully, and generously. He don't mind helping his brother.
Because God's shown him what Christ has done for him. And
that poor brother who's helped, He will not take advantage of
that wealthier brother. He won't take his ease and try
to live off of him. He'll try his best to get back
on his feet, get his house in order and take care of his responsibilities.
He won't take advantage. And then when the tables are
turned, there'll be equality. That brother that was poor, once
he's prospered and got back on his feet, whenever he's able
to help The wealthy brother that fell on hard times, He'll help
him. There'll be equality. That's the grace of God at work.
The grace of God at work. Man cannot legislate the hearts
of unregenerate sinners to do anything remotely close to that. Man can't do it. This is Christ's
government. Listen to this. Of the increase
of His government and peace, there shall be no end. upon the
throne of David, upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish
it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Man cannot... This is the government of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Man can't cause that. Christ
does it by love and grace, by giving a new heart. Man can't
do any of that. Christ works it not in the sinful
heart of Adam, He works it in the new heart He's given. He
works it not by law, He works it by grace and love. And He
works it by showing His people what He did for us. Go to 1 John
3. He works it by showing us what
He did for us. This is why we preach the gospel
and we don't preach law. If I preach this message to you
today and I didn't preach Christ, I just preached on how important
it is to give and how we follow Christ's example, and I didn't
preach Christ, somebody sitting here that don't know the Lord
would think, well, that's how you come to God. That's how you
earn righteousness, right there, by giving. But see, when you
preach Christ, when you preach Christ, that shows a believer,
number one, insignificant and insufficient
we are to really give because we see how much Christ gave.
And number two, by seeing what He did in giving Himself for
us, it makes us willing in our hearts to want to provide for
our brethren. That's somebody Christ died for.
That's somebody Christ gave His life for. I want to help them. That's the closest I can get
to doing something for Christ right there is by helping that
brother. I want to do it. And because you know Christ worked
it, it makes you to where you want glory in yourself. Oh, you
will always have that sinful man. You know, when you do something
that's right, you always have that sinful flesh that makes
you feel like, that was a good thing I did. Well, it was a good
thing according to God, but we ought never to think it of ourselves. That's the flesh. But that new
man and that new man, He makes you know that. And He makes you
glory only in the Lord. So look here. This is how we
perceive this love. 1 John 3.16, Hereby perceive
we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good,
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of
compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little
children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but
in deed and in truth. Amen. Alright, brethren, let's
stand together. Father, thank You for making
us citizens of Your heavenly government. Thank You for working
all this in the hearts of Your people bringing us into a peaceful
church and a peaceful family where every brother is concerned
for the other brother because we see how you are our provider. Lord, keep us ever looking to
Christ in everything and make us truly willing, cheerful, generous
givers. Make us follow Christ, make us
trust that He our only sufficiency, our only provision. As true as
You are our righteousness, Lord, and our acceptance with God,
so You are the sufficiency of our everyday bread. Keep us knowing
this, keep us looking to You first and preeminently all the
time. And make it so that we are not
so worried about this life and these things Teach us to live
below our means so that we can truly worship You and honor You
in peace. And be ready at all times to
help one another. Thank You, Lord, for these things.
This is an unspeakable gift You've given us. And we pray in His
name, Christ Jesus. Amen.