May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Holy Word. Let's turn to the second epistle
of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 6, and we'll read the first two
verses. The second epistle of Paul to
the Corinthians, chapter 6, and reading verses 1 and 2. We then, as workers together
with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God
in vain. For he saith, I have heard thee
in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured
thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation. As you know we read the fifth
and the sixth chapter of this epistle this morning together
and I thought just before we commence meditating on the text
I'll just point out a couple of things. First of all in the
sixth chapter towards the end we read that important statement
that the Apostle sets before us and tells us be not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers and that of course means in two
sense It means in becoming man and wife and getting married
or being engaged with people in business. And so he tells
us here that we are not to be unequally yoked together with
unbelievers. And then he expands on it a little
bit and tells us, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? Well that's fairly obvious, isn't
it? But it's good to just note. We don't want to be found with
an unrighteous person, either spiritually or naturally. And
what communion hath light with darkness? And unconverted people
are in darkness. And therefore there is no real
communion. And then he goes on. And what
concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? Again, it's a very clear statement,
really. To recognize that we are not
to be joined with unbelievers. And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? So many people are idol worshipers
in one way or another. And then he says, for ye are
the temple of the living God, As God has said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. And then he carries on. Wherefore,
come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord. That means not to be joined with
unbelievers in any way, really. Touch not the unclean thing and
I will receive you and will be a father unto you And ye shall
be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. So we're not
left in a vacuum. We have a very clear statement
that we are not to be joined with unbelievers. And on the
other hand, God will be a father unto us and we shall be his sons
and daughters. Well, I just thought I should
just mention that, you young people. We live in a day when
so often anything goes but the Word of God is quite clear and
we have that as our guide and direction. So may we ponder these
things and recognise the relevance of them. And then the other point
I wanted just to mention was the beginning of the fifth chapter
where again Paul reminds us very clearly really about our mortality
and he tells us for we know that if our earthly house of this
tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God and house
not made with hands eternal in the heavens now that's a great
blessing and wonderful if you and I have the evidence that
we are a child of God that we are a believer and therefore
that indeed the Saviour has gone to prepare a place for us in
heaven and that he will come and receive us again. And then
he goes on and tells us, for in this we groan, a true believer
groans because of the sins which so easily possess us, earnestly
desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed we
shall not be found naked. You see we all need to be clothed
with the righteousness of Christ. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed
but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up in life. Well we won't carry on but I
thought just point these important issues out for us to not pass
by they are in the word of God for us and we should recognise
the relevance of them so now let's turn now to the 6th chapter
and the first two verses and so the apostle tells us then
we then as workers together with him well what a great blessing
if you and I are involved in God's work in whatever situation
that may be to realise in that work we're not alone we're workers
together with him and so he says, beseech you also that you receive
not the grace of God in vain and that really means very simply
the grace of God as I'm sure you know is the free unmerited
favour of God And if God has been gracious and has blessed
us with a spiritual knowledge of spiritual things and therefore
what a gift and blessing that is. And therefore we are exhorted
that we may not receive this grace of God in vain. That means we're not to ignore
it, we're not to pass it by, but if God has given us his grace,
his favour, we are to recognise it emanates from God and it is
to be used for his honour and for his glory. Just remember
those words so clearly set before us, we are not our own, you are
not your own, you are bought with a price. Don't forget, the price that
we were bought with was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we have that before our
eyes, it will influence us in so many things. Remember, we
are bought. The price of our salvation was
paid for by the blessed Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his
sin-atoning death on the cross at Calvary. And so, says the
Apostle here, he beseeches us that we receive not the grace
of God in vain. We're not to pass it by. We're not to think it's irrelevant. It's very relevant. It's very
important to every one of us and it's an amazing gift and
it's a wonderful favour. It's a great blessing to realise
that God in his wonderful favour and love has enabled us to come
together even on this Lord's Day morning and look back and
just realise that we're here perhaps because we've been born
into a godly family, because we've had Parents are concerned
for our spiritual well-being. And so these things are a great
blessing and a great favour. And so may we not receive the
grace of God in vain, but may we value it And may we praise
and thank our God for it. And then the next verse is in
parenthesis. It refers really to this previous
verse. Let me just read it again. For
he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day
of salvation have I succoured thee. Behold, now is the accepted
time behold now is the day of salvation well this word salvation
really means the saving of our soul it really means our soul
being rescued you may say rescued from what? well rescued from
hell that place that you and I by nature because of our sin
deserve and what a terrible consideration to think that if we do not and
have not received the great blessing of salvation and if we do not
receive it while we are on this earth then we shall perish in
our sins and we shall never enjoy the great blessings of glory
that we've just mentioned very briefly in those first few verses
in the fifth chapter of this same epistle. So the day of salvation,
all God's people in their spiritual life have a day of salvation. a day when the Spirit of God
has entered into our souls and what a blessing it is if you
and I can look into our spiritual life, look into our hearts and
observe that through the grace of God we have been wonderfully
blessed with this day of salvation it's not something which is unimportant
it's very important for every one of us and that's why the
Apostle says for he saith I've heard thee in a time accepted
we're still on praying ground my friend we're still on a time
accepted. What a blessing that is. The
day of grace is still with us. And in the day of salvation have
I succored thee. That means to draw us and helped
us. What a great and wonderful God
we have. Who doesn't deal with us as our
sins deserve. It's good sometimes just to consider
what we deserve. I wonder if you just ponder that,
thought of your life, thought of what you've done, thought
of how you disobeyed God, just like the Israelites of old, disobeyed
Almighty God. And therefore, what have we deserved? Well, we've deserved to be cast
off. And what a wonderful blessing
it is if the Lord has therefore succored us, has drawn us, indeed
has helped us and blessed us with this great and wonderful
gift of salvation. Because that's when it occurred.
In the day of salvation, have I succored thee? we wouldn't
have understood it otherwise and then he says behold now is
the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation how many
people have turned their back upon the things of God how many
people turn their back upon the truth of God throughout the history
of the world indeed We go back and look at the time when Israel
were delivered out of Egypt and how God wonderfully delivered
them. And then when you trace that after a short time, about
a year, they were told to go up and possess the promised land. And they sent those 12 spies
to have a look and see what it was like. And 10 of the spies
came back. with an evil report. There were only two, Caleb and
Joshua, who gave a good report. And the people believed the evil
report. And therefore instead of going
up at that time and possessing the land, they said they would
not go. And then God told them what would
occur. They were 40 days surveying the
land of Canaan. And God told them that for every
day, those 40 days would represent a year. And they would wander
around in the wilderness for 40 years. And worse than that,
all those who were over 20 years of age would never come into
the promised land. They would all die in the wilderness. The solemn reality is that we
should realize that what God says and what he has said, we
should recognize as the truth and that which is to be obeyed
and not to turn our back upon. What a wonderful blessing it
is then that we have these positions set before us in the Word of
God. He tells us, behold, now is the accepted time. We're on
the earth, my friends, and it's an accepted time. and as he goes
on to say behold now is the day of salvation what a great blessing
for you and me if that day of salvation we know has occurred
and if it hasn't occurred that we're concerned that it might
occur we might know it we might be blessed with it and that we
might realize that God is looking upon us in love and mercy to
our soul. You might remember the well-known
case of Jonah in the Word of God. I don't need to go through
what happened to Jonah. I'm sure most of you will know
very clearly what happened to Jonah. But the principle thing
is that he disobeyed God. He disobeyed God. He was told
to go to Nineveh and to preach to them the gospel of repentance
and he didn't want to go. And so he ran away. he ran away and
the result was of course that he got into a ship and the ship
caught up in a great storm and he realized that he was the cause
of the storm he told the sailors to throw him overboard and they
tried to not do it eventually they concluded they would have
to and he was cast overboard but we see God's amazing plan
he had prepared the Bible tells us it was a great fish in another
place it was a whale and that great fish was prepared so that
it could swallow Jonah and Jonah was swallowed and there he was
we're told in the whale's belly for three days and three nights
must have been a terrible experience and yet Jonah was so hard-hearted it
would seem that initially he didn't pray he was there but then we're told he came as
it were to his senses And he said, I will look again unto
the holy head of Zion. He would pray once again. And
he came to this conclusion. But I will sacrifice unto thee
with a voice of thanksgiving. I will pay my vow. I will pay that I have vowed. salvation is of the Lord. It was a long lesson wasn't it
for Jonah to be taught that but how vital and how good and how
wonderful it was that God told him and he was able to recognize
that God had had mercy upon him that God had helped him he'd
drawn him he'd rescued him And he was able to say, salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation is not of ourselves.
You and I cannot save ourself. We cannot redeem ourself to take
away our sins. We don't have the currency to
pay to Almighty God to take away our sins. But Jonah, we see this
example, he then prayed and God did come and delivered him, brought
him to this great statement, salvation is of the Lord. Well, let's come back to this
second verse. Now is the accepted time. Behold,
now is the day of salvation. Well, that day of salvation occurred
in Jonah's life. My friends, what a blessing it
is if it occurs in your life and my life. The day of redemption,
the day of blessing, the day of eternal good. What a mercy,
then, to be brought to that situation and to that position. Well, it
is because of God's grace. And what a mercy therefore if
God's grace for us is made known to us and we rejoice in it we
go on our way rejoicing indeed very thankful for it another
well-known character that we read of is Zacchaeus the New
Testament Zacchaeus well he was a little man a little of statue
he was a tax collector he was a publican and probably not a
very nice character But what we see is God had mercy on his
soul. God loved him from eternity past. Zacchaeus wasn't aware of that
until the appointed time came. And you remember I expect a little
account. It's told to us in the 19th chapter
of Luke. Very pleasing to read it, that
the Lord Jesus knew where Zacchaeus was. He'd run up, run ahead,
and climbed up to the Sycamore tree to get a good view, and
probably thought that Jesus would just pass under the tree and
he would have a view of him. But Jesus stopped. Why? Jesus knew where Zacchaeus was.
And Jesus had a wonderful plan for Zacchaeus. What a great blessing
for us if Jesus has a wonderful plan for each one of us. A plan of mercy. A plan of love. You see, here
we have a man who lived his life Zacchaeus fulfilling the desires
that he wanted to but the appointed time came for his salvation and
Jesus came and he said to him these wonderful words when he
was up the tree this day his salvation come to this house
for as much as thou also art a son of Abraham. What a blessing that was. What
a wonderful time for Zacchaeus. What a change there was to him
and how pleased he was to entertain the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a difference the grace of
God makes. What a difference it makes in
your life and my life. This great and wonderful gift
of salvation. Now is the day of salvation. Well, it's good to examine ourselves
to see whether we have been blessed with this day of salvation. And
whether we can say, yes, by the grace of God, I can remember
that time when God looked upon me, when God changed my perspective
of things, when God caused me to consider my way, and when
God showed to me his wonderful mercy, his wonderful grace, his
love to such an unworthy sinner Behold, now is the day of salvation. Well, it's a great blessing,
is it not, to realize that God is merciful, God is gracious,
and God doesn't deal with us as our sins deserve. You know, when the Apostle Paul
wrote the Hebrews to the Jews, reminded them of these truths
and he said today if you will hear his voice harden not your
hearts as in the provocation we already mentioned really the
provocation that was when the children of israel refused to
go up and conquer the land That was the provocation. What did they do? They hardened
their hearts. My friends, let us not harden
our hearts to the things of God. Let us not say, I'm not going
to do this, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do this,
I'm going to do that. Well, my friends, let us be very
careful and let us weigh up what we think and what we say. Weigh
it up in the balances of the Holy Scriptures. You see, we
have the Bible as a guide to us. Oh, my friends, let us not
harden our hearts against God, because what God does for us
is the best. Be very clear about that. God's
plan for you and me is best. Whatever it entails, whatever
difficulties it appears to bring us into, whatever things perhaps
contrary to what we want. You see how often we in our little
lives try and plan out things. seem to somehow think that we
can convince God that our plan is the best and the most acceptable
but it would be a great blessing if we submit ourselves under
the mighty hand of God not pleasing ourselves not going our own way
there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death. My friends, let us not go in
the way that seemeth right, but let us realize there is this
great and glorious day of salvation. Not to turn away from it, and
not to turn our back upon it, and not to harden our heart,
because we don't want to follow God's way. We've read, true it
is, we walk by faith and not by sight. Naturally, sometimes
we want to see things in a tangible way that we can grasp. But my friends, the word of God
tells us, God gives us faith. And what a blessing, he does
give faith. And do you know why that is?
He gives us faith and makes us rely upon that faith and not
on our plan and not on our works. And the reason for that is very
simple. If God allowed us to follow our
plan, we would take the glory. We would think that we had delivered
ourselves. that we'd brought salvation into
our soul. But my friends, God is a jealous
God and God will have the honor and will have all the glory. So what a wonderful favor it
is if God gives us that grace. As we read in this first verse, receive not the grace of God
in vain. My friends, let us not receive
it in vain. But may we rejoice indeed in
the day of salvation and find it is an accepted time. A time when by the grace of God
we have accepted what God has purposed for us. We read, don't we? So many characters
in the Word of God that God brought them to that time when they realized
that God had been guiding and directing them. Although at the
time they couldn't see it. Well-known character of Joseph.
Stands out, doesn't it? Yes, but God was with Joseph. He couldn't see it at the time. It was difficult for him. He
was imprisoned. And if you look at Joseph's life,
you think, well, God dealt very harshly with him. Well, if you
stopped at his prison time, you would have perhaps come to that
conclusion. But as you look on and you see
how God had a wonderful purpose for him, and that may be so in
our lives, We look at the present and we perhaps cry out, how hard
is our lot? Why do I have to walk this path? Well, perhaps there is before
you a time accepted, a time when God will indeed show you this
day of salvation, when God will indeed guide and direct you and
bring you out into a wealthy place. It may be sometimes the
Lord brings us into difficulties, sometimes naturally, sometimes
with our body, but what a blessing it is if that does occur, whatever
the affliction may be, to come out the other side and say it
was good that I have been afflicted. That sets before us the grace
of God. That sets before us his great
and glorious day of salvation to make us humble and to accept
what God has planned for us. we should realise that God's
plans are always perfect. As we mentioned in prayer, as
the word in the 8th of Romans, as for God, his way is perfect. And we know that all things work
together for good to those who love God and to those who are
called according to his purpose. My friends, what a mercy to have
a God who deals with us in love to our soul. Again, if you and
I look back in our lives, we can see how good and kind and
gracious God has been. And yet you see, perhaps we're
in the midst of the difficulties just like Joseph when he was
in prison house. Well, it was a time of testing.
It was a trying time for him. But the Lord brought him out. The Lord delivered him. And the
Lord does to his people. He brings us out of a time of
bondage. It may be spiritual bondage.
We may be bound up. And often it's because we brought
ourselves into situations. Just like Israel. Disobeyed God. And now we find we are in bondage. Not freedom. No. There doesn't seem to be any
light. We're in darkness. We're in a prison house. My friends,
the time of love will come. Will come. The eternal purpose
of God will be fulfilled. He has to bring us down. he may
then bring us up and deliver us and bring us to that accepted
time. We're made willing in the day
of his power. That's a great blessing to be
made willing in the day of his power. And we're just like Jonah
in the whale's belly, made willing. And we go again. Yes, made willing. What a blessing
for us, indeed, to be made willing. To recognise God's great and
glorious plan of salvation, the day of salvation, is what really
struck me. Those simple words, now, is the
day of salvation. how important then each one of
us has a now in our life. Not something which is just a
statement is the day of salvation, but a personal statement to our
souls from God as he brings us into a condition, into a situation
to deliver our soul, to bring us out of bondage, into the glorious
light of the everlasting Gospel. What a wonderful, wonderful blessing
it is to be brought into the wonderful light of the Gospel. Indeed, we have that, don't we? In the previous chapter, we didn't
read the fourth chapter, in this second epistle, for God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. When Jesus is revealed to us
as our salvation, how the light shines, how we rejoice in it,
how we bless God for it and yet the Apostle tells us we have
this treasure in earthen vessels that's what we are an earthen
vessel that the excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us yes the power what a wonderful thing when that power of God
shines into our hearts and gives us this great and glorious light
of the glorious gospel in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh, it's good news. What a wonderful
blessing. You know, the apostle who knew
much of hardship, he tells us, we are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in
despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken,
cast down, but not destroyed, almost bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our body. You see the great truth being
fulfilled, all things working together for good, for we which
live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh,
the spiritual life, the joy of the gospel. To realise that this
man, God-man, willingly, died upon the cross at Calvary to
bring us this great and wonderful gift of salvation. Well now is the accepted time,
behold now is the day of salvation when our soul has been blessed
indeed, our soul rejoices, our soul has been rescued We recognise
and know the help of Almighty God. Well, a set time, the accepted
time. What a blessing, my friends,
in your and my little life to realise that the great God has
planned the day of our salvation. And how rejoicing, how wonderful
it is to rejoice in what He has done. so that he receives all
the honour and all the glory. Well, ponder these words. Now is the day of salvation. Amen.