Alright brethren, let's go to
2 Corinthians chapter 8. The Spirit of God has moved Paul
to deal with the subject of the grace of giving. Now, last time
in the first five verses, we saw that the source of giving
is the grace of God. None of this is anything we can
boast in. This is by God's grace. Everything
about it, every aspect of it is by the grace of God. He's
the source. And we saw that the spirit that God gives in this
thing of giving is a joyful, generous, willing spirit. That's the spirit He works in
His people. And we saw that the order which
God works this is He makes His child to first give ourselves
to Christ. Without faith it's impossible
to please God. He makes us give ourselves to
Christ in God-given faith, trusting Him alone. And then He makes
us cheerful givers for our brethren. So there's the first things we
saw last week. Now today our subject and our
outline is this. The character, encouragement
and motive of giving. The character, encouragement
and motive of giving. Now the grace of giving that's
worked in us by the grace of God, this grace He works in us
makes our character, crowns our character with a benevolent,
it's a benevolent character that makes us concerned that we don't
want to bring any dishonor to the Lord. And then the encouragement
that we get when God uses a fellow brother to encourage us like
He was using Paul here to encourage them. Our encouragement to give
is not by law. It's not by command. It's by
grace and love. That's our encouragement to give.
And then we'll see lastly that the motive for giving is the
love of Christ. for us. That's the motive. Now let's read this together,
2 Corinthians 8.6. Paul says, 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, in utterance, in knowledge, 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 or the willingness
of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. For you know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When he mentions grace there,
remember he's calling this ministry of giving, he's called it grace
now two or three times in this chapter. And that's what he's
talking about, the giving of our Lord Jesus Christ. 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 give my advice,
for this is expedient for you, this is profitable and necessary
for you. You began it before, not only
to do this, but also to be willing 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. Now first of all, the character
of the grace of giving. He says there, as you abound
in everything, faith, utterance, knowledge, all diligence, and
your love to us, see that you abound in this grace also. He
speaks here of this grace of giving. as the crowning gift
of God that makes up our character as believers. This is the crowning
gift of everything He's done that manifests the character
of a believer. That God's actually worked these
gifts in us and they're legitimate. We have a new character that
He's made us to have. You know, it was by irresistible
grace of God, by His grace working, we abound in everything. God
doesn't do anything halfway in His people. He says there, you
abound in everything. And God's people abound in everything.
All these graces that He mentions here are given by God. We didn't
and could not have any of this. This is all by the grace of God
and this is what makes up a believer's character right here. Faith. He says faith. Faith is a gift
of God. We don't conjure up faith. Faith
is the gift of God, just like we saw repentance this morning.
And it's by God's grace, it's worked by the power of God in
our hearts. And when you have true faith,
James said that the true faith is going to be justified as being
the genuine article. It's going to be justified as
being true God-given faith by the works it does. See, Paul
is telling them here You began a year ago, you were willing
a year ago, but you haven't performed this yet. And he's telling them
here, faith is going to follow through with this. He said, now
you abound in faith, abound in this grace also. He talked there
about utterance, about utterance. He said God gives the gift of
speaking and explaining the Word of God clearly. He's given you
that. He's given you an ability to
hear and understand and be able to convey the truth. Well, if
I have utterance and I can express the Gospel, but I'm not willing
to spend and be spent to go wherever necessary and sacrifice whatever
necessary to speak that gospel to somebody, it doesn't really
manifest much, does it? If you can speak the gospel clearly,
but you're not willing to give up your life and give up your
way and give up everything that you would have otherwise to make
certain sinners hear this gospel and give them this gospel, abound
in this grace of giving, well, that gift of utterance would
be It wouldn't appear to be the
true gift that God gives. He said you got knowledge. He
gives us the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. He makes us
to see we're totally depraved so that we'll see that we can
by no means work out the righteousness God demands. Total depravity,
that doctrine is to shut us up to Christ. He teaches us the
knowledge of unconditional election, but not just as a doctrine. He
teaches us that it was Christ that God chose. Behold my servant
whom I uphold. I put my spirit upon him. He
shall bring judgment to the Gentiles. I chose him and I chose the people
in him. He's taught us limited atonement.
He's taught us that Christ didn't come into this world to die for
everybody. He came to die for a particular people God gave
him before the world began and that he accomplished their atonement.
He accomplished making atonement for them. He's taught us the
irresistible grace of God by which we must be born again.
He's taught us this, but like we saw this morning, not just
as a doctrine. He taught us this to show us
that it's Christ who sends forth the Spirit. It's Christ who sends
the Gospel. It's Christ who teaches us in
the heart. It's Christ getting the glory
for making us be born again. And same with perseverance of
the saints. It's really preservation of the
saints because God's preserving us or else we wouldn't persevere.
But see, if I have this knowledge, if I have all this knowledge
but I'm not going to preach the gospel, I'm going to stray from
the gospel and just start tickling men's ears, that's like a man
being hungry, a brother or sister starving to death over here and
I'm going to give them chaff when I got a barn that's just
loaded down with corn. That wouldn't manifest that I
had really the knowledge God gives, would it? If I did that,
if I gave them chaff instead of giving them the true knowledge,
the true gospel. He says here, you have all diligence. God makes
His preacher diligent to study the Word, makes His people diligent
to come and hear it, and then go study the Scriptures, try
the spirits, try the preacher, and hear this Word and make certain
it's the truth of God. And He gives you diligence to
come here and observe the ordinances of the Lord, baptism in the Lord's
table. He gives us diligence to be diligent
in helping one another. But if I don't diligently help
my brother and have a spirit to give to my brother, then it
makes all that other diligence to be vain. It doesn't make it
justified as being the true gift of diligence, if I'm not willing
to be diligent towards those in need. And He says, and in
your love to us. They had a gift of love that
when God makes you new, God is love. We saw this. And when God
creates a new man, that's God in you. That's Christ in you.
That's the Spirit in you. So that's going to be a new man.
That new man is going to have love. He's going to be love.
John said, you abide in love. It's not like you're trying to
love. Love is the house we live in as a new man created by God. And they were very loving towards
Paul as a preacher. But if they weren't willing to
give in this grace of giving and be diligent and abound in
it as well, it would make it look like they just kind of worshipped
the preacher. if they didn't have that same
love to their brethren. So that's what Paul is saying here. John,
you know, he said, 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? And so having all
those graces, the apostle is saying here now, see that you
abound in this grace of giving too. Because this grace right
here, it's how all those other graces are going to be justified
as being the true thing, the real thing. This is so, brethren,
God doesn't create a people that are stingy and frugal and won't
provide for brethren. He doesn't do it. Do you think
our Lord Jesus Christ who gave what He gave would create a people
like that? No, sir. He creates a generous,
benevolent people and that justifies us by the actual performance
of that. It justifies the very fact, you know, it justifies
before God. It justifies the fact that all
these graces God gave are truly from God. Because He makes His
child a generous, willing, sacrificial giver. He does. You know, you
don't have to twist a mom's arm to give whatever she has to give
to provide for her child, do you? Because she loves the child. And where there is a love God
has given in the heart along with all these other graces,
You see a brother suffering, that's your brother that's suffering. What do you do for your brother?
That's your brother. So you're willing. So Paul's
saying here now, look down at verse 10 and 11. He's saying
that the character stands in jeopardy if they don't actually
give this gift. He said, verse 10, Here I give
my advice for this is very expedient, this is needful and profitable
for you. You began before not only to do but also to be willing
a year ago. But something happened, I don't
know what happened, probably all this fighting and fussing
that Paul has been correcting for this letter and the one before. but it stopped them and they
didn't go forward with it. They started, they were willing
at the beginning, they started, we're going to take up this offering
to give to the church of Jerusalem, but a year had passed and they
hadn't done it. And Paul says, 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. He's saying, save your own credibility. Because your character is fixed
to be maligned here. It's expedient for you to finish
this. Otherwise, think of all the boasting Paul said he had
made of them. That's going to make Paul look
bad. They've exposed themselves to
contempt and disgrace. Bring that upon their character.
And so it was not only proper that they should perform the
doing of this, but that they do it willingly. Do it willingly,
abundantly, with much cheerfulness. Because their character was at
stake. You see, before we're saved, you know, to go out and
sin and not care, you know, a sinner doesn't care if he's bringing
disgrace on the character of his father. He doesn't care about
that. Much less a heavenly father that he doesn't even know. But
when he's given you grace now, you know you have a heavenly
father. You know, I don't want to dishonor him. You have a new
character that is honest and a new character that is... It's
all these graces God's given us. And it makes you diligent
to really want to not just say, well, I had good intentions to
do that, but no, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Now
that's the first thing, the character that He gives us makes us willing,
makes us want to never bring disgrace on that which God's
created. You're the workmanship of God, you believe. We're the
workmanship of God, we don't want to bring disgrace on that.
So then secondly, the encouragement to this grace of giving. You
know, with something so important as our character, as God's church,
as Christ's church, and then individually our character, with
something this important, How do you think Paul is going
to encourage them to this grace of giving? We hear men all the
time in religion and how they encourage others. It's a law
you've got to tithe. Listen to what Paul does. Verse
8, I speak not by commandment. I speak not by commandment. I'm
speaking because of the occasion of the willingness of that church
in Macedonia, your brethren there, and for you to prove the sincerity
of your love. Look at verse 10. And herein
I give my advice. It's my counsel for you. For
this is expedient, this is profitable for you. See, the encouragement
our fellow brethren give us is not law. It's not law. It's grace. It's grace. Believers are not under the law.
Christ has redeemed us from under the law. You know the Scriptures. Go through the Scriptures and
read the Scriptures. Repeatedly we're told believers are not
under the law. Not under the law. You're under
grace. And for some reason preachers
just can't seem to grasp what not under the law means. It means
not under the law. It means you're under grace.
So we don't tithe. We don't tithe. Tithing is a
law. Tithing is a tax. Tithing is
saying you've got to give this or you've broken this law. That's
tithing. That was a covenant of works.
It said you've got to do this or you've broken the law. That's tithing. We don't tithe,
brethren. Believers give willingly because
they want to. Look at verse 7, 2 Corinthians
9, 7. according as he purposeth in
his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for
God loveth a cheerful giver." See that? If our heart in giving,
now listen to this carefully, if my heart in giving or in any
of these other graces we are talking about here, if my heart
is, I've got to do this, then I'm doing it by law. I'm doing
it from a legal standpoint, from a legal motive. And that's not
grace. If I feel like I've got to come
here, I'm not coming here. Even if I show up, I'm just here
in body, making a show. That's it. Believers do everything
because God's given us a privilege so that we get to do it. We get to do it. I don't have
to preach. I get to preach. You don't have
to come here. You get to come here. I don't
have to give. I get to give. Because God has
given me that privilege. That's grace. It's not by commandment. It's by grace. So that's second. That's this encouragement to
give. It's not commandment. It's grace.
God's grace. Now look here lastly. I want
to spend my time here. The motive of this grace of giving
is the love of Christ for His people, for us. The love of Christ
for us. That's our motive. Verse 8. I'm
sorry, yeah, verse 8. I speak not by commandment, but
by the 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. These
two things He mentions in verse 8, the occasion of the willingness
of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love, both of those are
love. That's the motive he's talking about here is love. When
he talks about by the occasion of the forwardness of others,
Paul himself was motivated in his heart when he saw the love
of those Macedonians so willingly giving themselves for their poor
brethren. And we're talking about a people
who were poor. The Macedonians were probably
in a lot of ways more poor than the people they were giving to
at Jerusalem. And that motivated Paul. The
Lord used that to stir up love in Paul's own heart and make
him constrained and brought him to remembrance of what Christ
had done for him and constrained him by the love of Christ when
he saw that. And he said, so this is why I'm telling you,
it's because of how willing these brethren were, the love that
they had. I want you to think about that.
That love that they manifest by what they did. You know, everything
that we do, now you know this as believers, everything that
we do, whether we want this to be the case or not, everything
we do, whether we are stingy or we are benevolent, we are
setting an example for others. Everything we do. We have a tendency
to look up to people older than us or that have been in the faith
longer and want to hear from them and talk to them and follow
them. And we have a tendency to forget somebody else is looking
at you the same way. So what kind of example are we
going to set for them? And that is what he is saying
here. We should never be in competition with each other or try to encourage
a competition. We should never sound a trumpet
when we do anything. Love is the motive. But listen
to this. Did you realize we are exhorted
in Scripture to provoke our brethren? to love and to good works? How
do you do that? You just set a good example.
Look, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works. That's Hebrews 10.24. We should. The Macedonians weren't trying
to do that. That wasn't their purpose. They weren't saying, let's set
a good example for the Corinthians so that we can stir them up to
some good works. It was a spontaneous thing in
their heart that they wanted to do this. And by what they
did, they set an example and provoked those Corinthians to
good works. So love was the motive. Love
is what did this. And so he's saying here, don't
only be motivated by that example now. He said, now you prove the
sincerity of your love. Are you really motivated by love?
Is the love of Christ constraining you? Paul said, prove it. Prove
it. Our motive is not law, it's love. Love to God, love to Christ,
love to His ministers, love to His saints. And we do that by
providing for the saints. And when you provide for the
saints, that's the only way your love is proven to be true. I
mean, think about it. If you love somebody and you
keep that love to yourself and you don't ever do anything whatsoever
to let them know you love them, they'll never know you love them.
Love's got to be shown. Love's got to be proven. Or you
won't know it. And when he started talking about
this, what's the first thing that came to Paul's heart? about
proving the sincerity of your love and being willingly forward
to give yourself, he thought about Christ. And this is our
motive. Christ and His love for His people
is our motive. He says, For you know the grace,
you know the great giving of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
our motive right here. This is our motive right here.
For everything The motive is the love of Christ. Though He
was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor that you through
His poverty might be made rich. To understand something of what
Christ did, we have to think about just how rich He was from
eternity. In and of Himself. How rich our
Lord Jesus Christ was before He ever came. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is the richest. He's the richest. He created
everything and He owns everything. It belongs to Him. He's rich
in glory. He's rich in self-sufficiency.
He's rich in... He's God! The richest! You know, you take a rich man
that owns a whole lot of stuff and, you know, big farm, whatever. That man might be able to boast
about having some great riches or what have you. But he can't
say this, all souls are mine. That's rich. Christ can say that. All souls are mine. I've never owned a soul. I don't
even really own the one I have. He gave it to me. He says all
souls are mine. He said every beast of the forest
is mine, the cattle up on a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of
the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were
hungry, I would not tell you. For the world is mine and the
fullness thereof. We can't offer to Him anything.
We can't give Him anything. Everything belongs to Him. And how did He manifest His love?
How did He prove the sincerity of His love for His people? How
did He do it? We know the love of God is everlasting. We know
God loves His Son and loves the people in His Son, and that's
an everlasting love that will never change. He said, I've loved
you with an everlasting love, therefore in lovingkindness have
I drawn you. His love does not change. I'm
God, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob were not consumed.
It's because who He loves, He always loves. He never ceases
loving us. He saves those He loves. He saves
everyone He loves. How did He manifest it? How do
we know it's so? How do we know it's true? Because
for your sake, this one who is so rich became poor. Now how poor did he become? You try to, in your mind, go
to the farthest extreme of the riches that Christ in Himself
is and that He possesses. You try to think of how, just
what it would be to be the richest. And now you go to the opposite
extreme and think of what it would be to be the poorest. That's
what He did. This One who made woman was made
of a woman. This One who feeds all things
and gives all things food and nourishment said, I thirst. He who possessed everything,
owned everything, when He walked this earth, He didn't have a
place to lay His head. He never bought a piece of property.
He never owned a house. He never got a car and said,
I'm going to have to get a new car pretty soon. This one is
getting a little less shiny. He never did it. But then think of this, then
He went to the Father and gave His own body to bear our sins
and His body on the tree. You want to talk about giving?
You want to talk about proving the sincerity of your love? I
can't even. Brethren, it's useless for you
and I to say we would ever even do anything remotely like that
for one another. Because we wouldn't. Most of
our benevolence And what we call self-sacrificing is not really
sacrificing at all. Truth be told, it's just not
much of a sacrifice at all. If it pains us too much, we usually
won't do it. That's just so. But Christ, for
people like that, for people who, dead in our sins, wouldn't
give anything for anybody, but for ourselves, And for people
like that, He gave His own body to bear the sins of His people
on the cross. This One who was before the Father and was ever
the Father's delight from all eternity became the object of
God the Father's divine wrath because He was giving Himself
to be a substitute for His people. Hell, the devil and all hell
and all evil demons raged against Him and looked at Him like He
was just the poorest nothing. All humanity looked at Him like
He was the poorest nothing. And God the Father turned His
back on Him. That's the poorest. That's the
poorest. When Christ perceived that his
brethren wondered who should be the greatest in the kingdom
of God. He took a little child and sat in their midst there
where they were talking. And we're talking about a little
child. A little child like Catherine
Little. A little child. And he said unto
them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth
me. And whosoever receives Me, receives
Him that sent Me. Now listen to this. Because He
that is least among you all, the same shall be great. Who's the least among us all? It's just one we're talking about.
He willingly made Himself the least. Who's the greatest among
us? John said, greater love hath no man than this that a man lay
down his life for his friend. Don't quote that scripture about
somebody coming back from Iran or Afghanistan or Iraq or whatever. Don't quote that about them.
That's Christ. Greater love hath no man than
this that a man lay down his life for his friend. That's what
Christ did. He made Himself to be the poorest,
the very least. And He so pleased the Father,
He is the greatest. The greatest proof of love for
God and for His brethren was manifest by Christ by Himself
making Himself to be the least. And now we are made rich through
His poverty. How rich? How rich? Tell me this, you that know Christ,
you that believe on Him, tell me this. What price tag, if you
had to put a price tag on it, what price tag would you put
on being made the righteousness of God in Christ? Put a price tag on that? Can
you think of how rich you are to have that? to be made, what
is the righteousness of God? I can't even really enter into
the righteousness of God. I'm so sinful and so unrighteous
by nature, I can't really even enter into what it is to be the
righteousness of God. But that's what He's made me
in Him. I can't put a price tag on that. Can you value being
made pure even as He is pure? What's the price tag you can
put on knowing that as He is, so we are in this world? Accepted of God, seated at God's
right hand, looked upon with the smile and pleasure of God
the Father, never ever again to be separated from God, nothing
but joy and delight from the Father, as He is, so are we in
this world. Totally without sin, no record
of sin, past, present or future, nothing but complete, total,
thorough, perfect righteousness as He is. So we are in this world.
What kind of price are you going to put on that? You got anything
you possess, you'd trade for that? You want to talk about
what your most prized possession is that costs you so much and
you're so proud of it. Oh, no man can buy that from
me. It's like a penny compared to
what we're talking about here. I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions, for mine own sake will not remember thy
sins. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. That's priceless treasure, brethren. Oh boy, the unsearchable riches
of Christ. That's why they're called unsearchable
riches. You can't add them up. You can't
count them. Riches freely given by Him freely
giving Himself for us. Riches that cost us nothing because
they cost Christ everything. When we survey our possessions
and we look at all our profitable investments, do we realize that
we owe everything to the Lord Jesus Christ? What could you
give Him that would even begin to compare to what He has given
us. I don't want to die with rusted,
cankered money that I have saved, like James said, so it will be
a witness against me that I really didn't trust Christ. Because
that will be the witness it will bear. A man that dies with 10
million riches will have 10 million witnesses against him that he
didn't trust Christ. That's why he hung on to it.
Thought that was going to be his salvation in a rainy day.
So he had to have it. I don't want to die that way.
There's a lot of wealthy professing believers who made a shipwreck
over their faith and their character and their youthfulness because
they were swept away by the irresistible force of this world's riches. Demas has forsaken me, Paul said,
having loved this present world. cares of this world, the deceitfulness
of riches, the lusts of other things entering in, choke the
word and it becometh unfruitful. I pray God will make us follow
Christ, follow His steps, look to Him always and see how He
emptied Himself of all riches and lived in this earth in total
dependent poverty. You know the faith that saves
us, the faith that God is pleased with, He's Christ who totally
emptied Himself into the depths of poverty and lived so that
He had to live perfectly dependent upon the Father. Even when He
laid down His life on the cross, trusting the Father to fulfill
His word for Him. I'm not suggesting you do this.
Anybody do this. To go to that cross and suffer
and die the justice of God and give up your life, trusting the
Word of the Father to fulfill His Word for you, it would be
kind of somewhat like, you and I can enter into this a little
bit, like if you were hanging from a cliff and you had the
Word of God that if you just let go, God would save you, He
would take care of you. I don't imagine there is one
of us in here that could let go, do you? Christ did. That was faith. That was perfect faith, trusting
the Father. Poverty. You know that is the
thing that frightens us. But we ought to really think
about what Paul is saying here. He is saying that poverty saved
us. Poverty saved us. Christ became poor. He became the essence of poverty. And by Him we are made rich. He's teaching us here this, that
the liberality springs spontaneously from a conscious possession of
Christ's riches. He's saying that His love for
us is our constraining motive in everything we do. He's saying
that that act of stooping that low, the foundation of all our
hope, is to be the pattern of all our conduct. That's the pattern
of all our conduct, to give, to stoop, to make ourselves the
least following Christ in that pattern. And if we constantly
think on the depths that Christ sank to, to make us rich, it
will mortify our selfish, stingy flesh. It really will. That's
why Paul says, if you be risen with Christ, seek those things
above. And then he goes into talking about mortifying the
deeds of the flesh. The only way you can do that is to behold
Christ. When my old man starts raising
up within me and telling me I need to not do this or not do that,
I just need to say to myself, you know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. How that though He was rich, yet for your sake
He became poor, that through His poverty you might be made
rich. That will be the death of that old man. That will be
the death of that old stingy, frugal planner that so Meticulous to
print plan and worry about things that have never even come to
pass yet Saying you can't do that. You can't give that away
You might need that How was how'd I get down before I had it? It
is something the moment week something comes in our possession
We never had it all the way up to that time it comes in our
possession when it comes in our possession We can't let it go.
Oh, we won't make it if we let that go I didn't have it five
minutes ago. Be submissive to God's will.
Lay up treasures in heaven by living like Christ. Let me say
that again. Lay up treasures in heaven by
living like Christ is your only true treasure. Because where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also. God will bless that. you