2 Corinthians 9, we've seen and mentioned many
times that these two chapters go hand in hand. Chapter 9 is
a continuation of everything that he's been saying through
chapter 8, and he is dealing with the subject of giving. The heading at the top of my
page for chapter 9 says, Paul exhorteth to bountiful almsgiving. He is encouraging and exhorting
them to be generous givers. But look what he says in verse
1 here in chapter 9. He said, for as touching the
ministering to the saints, it is superfluous. That means unnecessary. It means more than what is needed. It's superfluous for me to write
to you. It's unnecessary for me to write
this to you. Verse 2, for I know the forwardness
of your mind. I know how willing you already
are. I know that I don't have to twist
your arm on this. That's what he's saying. Verse
2, he said, I know the forwardness of your mind. for which I boast
of you to them of Macedonia." This whole thing started in chapter
8 with him boasting of the Macedonians. In chapter 8, verse 1, he said,
Moreover, brethren, we want you to know of the grace of God bestowed
on the churches of Macedonia. I'm here to tell you about these
poor brethren. They didn't have anything, but
they were so generous. And now he's saying in chapter
9 verse 2, I know the forwardness of your mind for which I boast
of you to them of Macedonia. The same things that I'm saying
to you about the Macedonians, I say to the Macedonians about
you. I boast of you to them, them to you. And he said, he
went on to say in verse two, I boast of you to them of Macedonia
that Achaia was ready a year ago and your zeal hath provoked
very many. You've been a great inspiration
to many congregations. That's what he's telling them.
And he said, I started telling all these other congregations
a year ago, God has laid it on the hearts of the Corinthians
to give generously to the saints in Jerusalem. And that's what
motivated the Macedonians to do it. Me telling them about
you is what motivated them to do it. Verse three, he said,
yet have I sent the brethren, he sent Titus and two other brothers
to collect this gift, get it ready. Yet have I sent the brethren,
lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf, that
as I said, you may be ready. What he's telling them not only
applies to physical matters, this especially applies to spiritual
matters. Now I had, we know that the scripture
is bifocal. It has a physical application
and a spiritual application. And a lot of times in a Sunday
school, that's what this is. We call it Bible study, but it's
a Sunday school. A lot of times we focus, we're
heavy on the physical matters. And then we step up and bring
a message, and we're heavy on the spiritual matters. We bring
both. We never give a message without
one or the other. It's bifocal all the time. But
I was heavy on the physical matters and went back and completely
redid this Bible study. And the reason is because it
is more important. The Lord laid it on my heart
to realize it is more important for us to actively do the spiritual
portion of this than the physical. It would be great if we were
all huge givers. That would be wonderful. Great
blessing in that. That's a bonus, though, to the
spiritual giving that he's about to tell us about, all right?
And that's what I pray happens here. We're welcome to look at
our physical giving, our checking accounts, and all that kind of
stuff along the way, but we're gonna focus the spiritual giving
in this. This is a huge necessity. James said, and turn over there
with me quickly. Go to James chapter two. James chapter 2 verse 15 says,
if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food,
and to some degree that describes the poor brethren in Jerusalem.
They were not naked and they were not destitute of daily food.
David said, I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor his
seed begging bread. It's not going to happen. He
lays it on the hearts of people to take care of his people, but
it is not gonna happen. But these poor brethren in Jerusalem
were in need. Right here in verse 15, James
said, if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily
food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye
warmed and filled, notwithstanding you give them not those things
which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? If you don't
do, actively do, what is in your heart. Paul said, I want to encourage
you to do what you set out to do. That's the point of this.
Where there is no action, there's no sincerity. And don't turn
back just yet, but in 2 Corinthians 8, In a previous Bible study,
we saw where he said, this giving will prove the sincerity of your
love. You're going to prove your love. And where there's no action,
there's no sincerity. You know, I could say, I love
my wife. I could say it all day long.
I love my wife. But if I never go home, if I
never speak of her, If I never provide for, if I never give
anything, do I? You can say it all day long.
And James says in verse 17, even so faith, if it hath not works
is dead. It's just empty words. He said,
a man may say you have faith and I have works. Show me that
faith without that works. And I'll show you my faith by
my works. He said, you believe there's
one God, thou doest well, the devils believe that. The devils
believe there's one God. They do. And they tremble. He said in
verse 20, but wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without
works is dead? And then he gave the illustration
of Abraham and Rahab, the things they did. Verse 26, as the body
without the spirit is dead. And what a great illustration
that is. This body, if it does not have the spirit inside it,
is dead. As soon as the spirit leaves,
it dies. He said, even so, that's the illustration, that faith
without works is dead also. A man can say, oh yeah, I love
God, sure. Yeah, I love God. But if he never
comes home to his house to worship him, never speaks of him, never
gives to the provision of his family, does he? So that's why
Paul said, it's unnecessary for me to encourage your heart. I
know what's in your heart. But he said, I want to encourage
you to do what's in your heart so that there's no vanity in
it. It's not in vain. The boasting's
not in vain. All right, go back to the text,
2 Corinthians 9. Let's read down through verse
7, starting in verse 3. Yet have I sent the brethren,
lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf, that
as I said, you may be ready. lest happily, or if it happens
to be so, that they of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared,
we that we say not ye should be ashamed in this same confident
boasting. Therefore, I thought it necessary
to exhort the brethren that they would go before unto you and
make up beforehand your bounty, whereof you had noticed before
that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty or blessing
and not as of covetousness. But this I say, he which soweth
sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully
shall reap also bountifully. Every man, according as he purposeth
in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity,
for God loveth a cheerful giver. Paul has just said some very
insightful things, some God-inspired things. My calling, this Bible study is very important
to me. My calling is to repeat these
things to you. That's my calling. I'm not called
to come up with anything. I'm just called to repeat these
things to you. Paul's greatest concern with
the Corinthians was them believing that he was out to get their
money. And he wrote two letters to the
Corinthians, two long letters. You know, the letters to the
Philippians is a short letter. Galatians is a short letter.
Ephesians is a relatively short letter. He wrote two long letters.
He said a lot of things for the benefit of the church. Not only
Corinth, but every generation of the church after that. We
are doing what he told Corinth to do. All right? So everything
he said was for the whole benefit of the whole New Testament church.
In the process, his great concern was that they would feel that
he was trying to get their money. All right? He wanted to prove
to them that he was not out for covetous reasons. And he had
an advantage over me. He had an advantage over every
pastor after him and the reason is because he never took one
dime from the Corinthians. Never. He said, y'all give. But not to me. Send it elsewhere. He told them, y'all give generously
to Piteville, Crossville, New Jersey, Orlando, Fairmont, wherever
you want to give it, you just do it generously. And he never
took a dime from them. Now, I take a dime from you. And the reason is because Paul
told the Corinthians the absolute vitalness of the pastor being
supported so he can totally give himself to the study and preaching
of the Word. The reason I do take a dime from
you is because God commanded it through him writing to the
Corinthians. Does that make sense? And if
you want to read that for yourself, it's in 1 Corinthians 9, the
first 14 verses. He tells this needs to be this
way. All right, now with all that
being said, Paul was supported by the churches of Macedonia,
the ones that he's telling them. They were so poor, but they've
been so generous, especially Philippi. They kept sending him
gifts. And in the last chapter of Philippians,
he keeps thanking them. Y'all sent me another gift, you
know, and I thank you for it. You supplied for my needs. And
he was supported just like we all are supported. But Paul here
just had to trust, and I have to trust, and every man after
who's really called of God to preach and pastor has to trust
that the Spirit will move on the hearts of the people and
convince them that God's true men are not in this for the money.
As they tell them, y'all give. I mean, be generous givers. You
go out there and work hard and you make that money and you give
to the gospel and give to God's people. We just have to trust
that the Lord will take care of all that. Well, he's given
some very insightful things here. And he tells us the reason for
all of this instruction at the end of verse 7. The last line
says, for God loveth a cheerful giver. God loves a cheerful giver. God loves a cheerful giver because
God is a cheerful giver. When it comes to all these things,
this is where we're going to start. God is a cheerful giver. I wrote in my notes here, may
we never mention our giving without mentioning His giving. May we
never mention anything without mentioning His giving. The gospel
is His giving. That's the good news. His giving.
He gave everything. He gave life. He's given physical
life to everybody in this town. They're walking around here and
enjoying things. He gave the sun, the things that
support life. He's given us air. He's given
us food. What if all of a sudden he just
withheld the air? You just end it. He has given
generously all of our necessities. The Scripture says He's given
us all things richly to enjoy. He's kind. He's kind to everybody. His reign
falls on the just and on the unjust. He's a cheerful giver. And for His people, He has cheerfully
given His Word. He's given the promise of His
Word to His elect. to the people He chose to set
His affection on. He's given His love, just freely
given His love. Where is the love of God found? In His Son. He gave Him too. The Father gave His only begotten
Son. The Son gave His own body, gave
His own blood. And He gave it freely. He gave
it to sinners who didn't deserve it, weren't worthy of it, didn't
want it. You know, it's one thing for
a king to say, I tell you what, pauper, I'm going to give you
all the gold in the kingdom. The pauper wants that. But he
came to his own, and his own received him not. We don't want
your blood. We don't want. But God, who is
rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, he did
it anyway. And we're about to hear in a
minute for the joy set before him, the cheerful joy set before
him. And because of everything God
the Son gave, the Father said, I'm well pleased with the giver,
Christ the giver, the cheerful giver. Because of him, for that
reason, as he has given us, and here's what I want to say, as
he has given us food, We need to give food, spiritual food. If somebody comes up knocking
on that door for food, we give it to them. We have many times
and we will. But there is one great need and
it's this spiritual food. And we need to give it to Him. God has cheerfully given us His
Word, and we need to give His Word, desperately. God has given
us His promises in here, richly to enjoy. We need to give those
to every person that God has given an ear to hear them. If
God doesn't give the ear, they're not going to hear them. But we
need to send them out. We need to send these promises
for sinners to richly enjoy. And all of this is summarized
by saying the gospel. God has given us the gospel. We need to give the gospel. We desperately need to give the
gospel. Now, in what he's about to say,
I want to apply this to both physical and spiritual. homes giving as it says at the
top of my page and telling people the truth giving people the gospel
and may he cause us to do it cheerfully cheerfully just like
our Lord has given it to us preaching praying whatever it is in humility
cheerfully now look with me at verse 3, 2 Corinthians 9 verse 3, Yet have
I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in
vain in this behalf, that as I said, you may be ready, lest
happily, if they of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared,
we that we say not ye should be ashamed in this same confident
boasting. He said, I'm going to encourage
you to do this, just in case they of Macedonia come with me,
who I've been telling them about all your giving. We sent them
before so you could be ready. And he said, so that we, I say
not ye, might be ashamed. We, I say not ye. I'm saying
this so we won't be ashamed, not you ashamed. Now I'm going
to pass this along to you. And I think this is very important.
When I first started preaching, a very dear and I believe very
wise preacher told me many times, after you finish writing your
outline, go back through the outline and change all the U's
to W's. I still do it to this day. And
as we talk to people about the gospel, change all the U's to
wheeze. He told me, he said, we are servants. We're servants. We are no better
than anybody else. He said, never forget that. We're
no better than anybody else. We don't preach down to people
as though, you know, we're up on our high horse knowing everything
and you all better learn this or else, he said, we don't do
that. We're no different than anybody. We're not above people.
We're sinners just like they are. We're beggars just like
they are. It really is one beggar telling
another beggar where he found bread. So he said, don't stand
up there and point at people and say, you, you, you. He said,
you change them all to we, us, our. And that is an excellent
way to very generously and cheerfully give the gospel to people. That's
an excellent way. He said, I say we, so I don't
say you. And that's how we ought to handle
it. And that's the best way. Preaching,
praying, exhorting, giving, whatever it is. Humility. All right. Verse five. Therefore, I thought
it necessary to exhort the brethren that they would go before unto
you and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof you had noticed
before that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty or
blessing and not as of covetousness, that this all might be just freely
from the heart given and not as though we're coming in covetously
taken. What he's saying is I want it
to be done privately. I don't want to come in and take
up a collection before we start the service. I don't know where
that got started. I don't have any, I do know where
it got started. But he said, I don't want there to have any
appearance of covetousness. I want that to be finished and
over with before I ever come in. This is the reason why Our
congregation and many other congregations have gotten away from passing
a plate. If people, you know, strange to some people, why don't
y'all pass a plate? We don't do that. On the radio,
on TV, we do not ask for money. Period. Not at all. God has always
provided, God will always provide, and we don't want to give any
appearance of covetousness. There was a little boy in a Service
one time and he passed all the plates out and collected all
the money and they set it up on front and two big Congregation
two big old piles of money that little boy tugged at his mom
and he said when I grow up I want to be a preacher and she said
why he said because he gets all that money And we don't want
that. We don't want any appearance
of that. So he said handle it privately our Lord said and I'm
not going to go into it because I We don't have time, but our
Lord said, don't let your left hand know what your right hand
does. To say that's impossible, think about it spiritually. As
every brother and sister being a member of the body of Christ,
He said, some are the ears, some are the mouth, some are the eyes.
Our Lord said, if you're a right hand, don't let the left hand
know what you're doing, do it privately. Whatever it is, he
said, those that stand out on the street corners praying, they
love to be seen of men. You know, they go into restaurants
and let's hold hands. He kept saying, they have their reward.
That's it. That open recognition, that's it. They have their reward. And he said, you start making
a big to-do about giving, that's it, you have your reward. You
won't receive the reward that is promised in the word, which
we're about to see. Alright, let me catch up here. Verse 7, skip to verse 7. Every man, according
as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly
or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. Everybody wants
to know How much should I give? How much should a believer give?
I'm going to tell you the answer. I'm going to tell you the answer. Brother Henry used to tell the
answer all the time. And it is so true, okay? Give the first
thing that pops into your heart. He said in verse 7, every man
according as he purposeth in his heart. Doesn't matter what
that number is. As soon as something happens, as soon as a brother,
you see a brother in need, as soon as a congregation floods,
or something happens, believers go, we need to help. It's just
what happens. And something pops into your
heart. Love puts something right here
in your heart. As soon as love does that, the
fleshly mind starts to talk the heart out of it. immediately. And the heart will say, you know
what? I'm going to give this much. Brother Henry used to say,
give it. Doesn't matter what it is. We'll
give a dollar. Give it. He said, your mind is
going to immediately start saying, you know, there's that. I've got to pay for that. And
there's a few things. I don't know. Maybe that's a
little too much. Let's give half of that. And he said, if you give in to
it, the mind's going to keep going and saying, you know what,
you never know what's around the corner. Let's give a quarter
of that. And he said, if you give in to
it, the mind is going to convince you, we just can't afford to
do this. And he said, you won't do anything. And I'm going to
tell you from my own personal experience, I know none of you
are like that, but from my own personal experience, that is
exactly what happens between my heart and my mind. I hate
to say it, But may the Lord overrule and teach me. May he teach me,
just give it. Whatever the Lord puts in your
heart, just give it. Verse 7. And here's what I'm
going to say about this. When it comes to the gospel,
just give it. It pops in our heart all the
time. So and so needs to hear that. That would really benefit
somebody. I ought to send them that CD.
I ought to send them, just send it. Because what'll happen is
immediately your mind's going to start saying, well, I don't
know, there's something in there they might be offended by. Maybe
I ought to, you know, and then we won't do it. Men and women
are almost in hell. They're almost in hell. Forever. If I do it, they're
going to be mad at me, you know. It's either five years of misery
or an eternity of misery. Just send it, just send it. I
just encourage you, just send it. Verse 7, every man according
as he purposes in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly,
that means not in unbelief, from a physical point of view, Everything
we have, our flesh says, this is mine, and I'm going to have
to give what's mine to him. Faith says, everything I have
is his, it's already his, I'm just moving it from one account
to his other account. That's belief. That's not giving
it grudgingly. Also unbelief in his promise
concerning our giving. From the gospel's point of view,
when you give the gospel, this has affected my life. It's changed
everything for me. The first time I ever heard this,
I attended Brother Todd Nybert's preacher's class. And he ended
it with something he called, in quotes, Henry Mahan's Ten
Commandments of Preaching. The last one was, Expect men
and women to believe it. I had never in my life expected
men and women to believe it. I always expect men and women
to not believe it. I'm going to tell you this, but
you're not going to believe it. Let's not do that. Let's not
do it grudgingly. Let's do it ungrudgingly. Let's
do it in faith. I know you're going to believe this. I know
you're going to love this. I know you're going to see this to be
the truth, knowing God is the doer of it. If God doesn't do
it, it's not going to happen. But let's give the gospel, not
grudgingly. All right. Give it in faith.
The Lord is so able. Verse seven, he went on to say,
or of necessity, don't give for a need. Don't give because you
feel like you're being forced to of necessity. Don't do that.
Don't let anybody force you to give. Don't ever interpret what
I'm saying as forcing to give. Don't do that. And don't wait
for necessity to come. Just give. Don't wait because
you don't necessarily see a need at the moment. Well, I don't
really see a need. I promise. I don't know about them, but
there's always a need. Always, somewhere there's always
a need. God will take care of it. God
will move it. God will shift it. He'll provide
what is needed, where it's needed, when it's needed, and we'll never
know about it. Things will happen and we probably
won't even know about it. The same thing applies to the
Gospel. Oh man, this is all for me. The same thing applies to
the Gospel. Don't wait to give the Gospel. until you see a need. Don't wait until somebody's on
their deathbed to give the gospel. That's the moment we say, you
know what, I really need to tell them the truth. It's the last
moment and now it's time to tell them the truth. Don't wait, just
give it. Just give the gospel. cheerfully,
generously, knowing this. Verse 6, this I say, he which
soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. He which soweth bountifully
shall reap also bountifully. Now, that applies to us personally,
and I'm just not going to go into ruining the promise. I said
this last week or the week before, I don't remember when, but religion
has ruined it. And it doesn't matter. Let religion
ruin it for them, but not for us. God's promise will hold true. If we will give, we will never
count it as a loss. You cannot out give the Lord. This is a covenant with promise. Ephesians 6 says, talks about
honoring your father and your mother. He said, which is the
first covenant with promise. Our Lord said, you honor your
father and your mother that thy days may be long on the earth.
He said, I'll lengthen your days on the earth. This is a covenant
with promise. He said, he which sows sparingly
shall reap sparingly. He which sows bountifully shall
reap bountifully. And if that sounds, again, like
false religion, I can't do anything about that. That's God's word. You're welcome to read Malachi
3 verse 10. And he said, will a man rob God?
He said, you have robbed me with tithes and offerings. He said,
prove me, try me, and see if I don't open the windows of heaven
to you. And it's just so. He said in Luke 6, 38, you give,
it'll be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together. Men will
give unto your bosom. All of a sudden, you'll start
to say, boy, business is really picking up. I don't know why.
That's why. Every bit of that does apply
to us personally. This is what I pray we might
get a hold of as I shut this down. The sowing of the seed of the
gospel. He said, He that sows sparingly
is going to reap sparingly. He that sows bountifully is going
to reap bountifully. Our Lord gave a parable. A sower
went forth to sow. He started slinging seed. He
started slinging seed. And I want to encourage this
little congregation Let's do everything we can to keep slinging
seed on the radio. Let's not take it off. There
was a point recently where I was going to take it. I was going
to stop doing the radio. I thought the TV, we're getting
a lot of response from that. I'm not hearing much from the
radio and why don't we just remove that. What if one person that
I never, you know, I said you give and the Lord will apply
it as needed and we won't even know about it. Well, what if
we give the seed of the gospel and the Lord applies it to the
heart of a sinner in somewhere and we never hear about it? Keep the seed flowing. Let's
keep the seed flowing. Let's stay on the television.
Let's keep doing everything we can do. We have a thousand messages
loaded onto Sermon Audio, okay? We have plenty of messages loaded
onto Sermon Audio. It's a big bill at the end of
the month. If you look at it, it's a decent-sized bill. It
costs us $2 to load a video on there, something like that, each
one, and then there's other expenses that go in and all that kind
of stuff. All right, well, that's a thousand. Couldn't we just stop loading
messages now? No. Let's keep on doing it. Let's
just keep on slinging seed. He that sows sparingly, our Lord
said, is going to reap sparingly. If a farmer walks out into that
field and he just throws out a few seeds, he should not expect
to reap much. But our Lord said, if a farmer
goes out there and he throws the whole bag, throw it all,
then he ought to expect to reap bountifully. Now, if the Lord
never adds to the number of this congregation, so be it. But what if the Lord starts saving
souls? What if wheat starts growing amongst the tares out there and
we never know about it? That's fine. Let's just keep
throwing seed. Let's keep throwing seed. Keep
throwing this seed of the gospel. Let's, as a ministry, never decline. Let's never grow cold. Let's
never grow tired. Let's never grow indifferent.
Let's press forward and throw that seed and may the Lord bless
it. All right, you're dismissed.