2nd Corinthians chapter 8. Houston, can I set this off to
the side? Is that right? I'll put it there. I want us to look this morning
at the first nine verses of 2nd Corinthians chapter 8. I want
to begin by just reading on it, and I want to make a few comments
to kind of set it up, because when you look into this, there's
a whole lot more here than meets the eye. So just pick up in verse
1 here, 2nd Corinthians chapter 8, This is Paul speaking. He
says, moreover brethren, we do you to with of the grace of God
bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. Now Paul obviously is writing
to the Corinthians here, but he's got something he wants to
talk to them about. He has a theme. He has a particular point he
wants to make, and he's gonna use an illustration. He's gonna
use the Gentile church, the church in Macedonia, as his example,
as his illustration. Now look down in verse two. He
says, have it in a great trial of affliction, the abundance
of their joy and their deep poverty abounded under the riches of
their liberality. Now, as I understand it, here's
what was going on. The church in Jerusalem, church down in
Israel, they had come under hard times. And we don't know why.
We don't know if there was a famine or a job shortage, economic collapse. For whatever reason, the church
in Jerusalem had become impoverished. And so Paul was going around,
he was taking up a collection for that church. So all the Gentile
churches were giving to support the church in Jerusalem. Now,
what's interesting is, concerning this church in Macedonia, they
were in the exact same boat. It says right here they were
in a great trial of affliction and they were in deep poverty. They were in the exact same boat
as the church in Jerusalem. And normally deep poverty leads
to misery, doesn't it? And then misery normally leads
to stinginess, right? Hatred and things like that.
But it didn't with these folks. This deep poverty led to joy. And that joy led to generosity,
and here's what they did. They gathered up everything they
had, and they gave it to Paul, and they said, you give this
to church in Jerusalem. Everything they had. They didn't have anything,
but what they did have, they gathered it up, said, take it,
give it to these people. Look at verse three. Paul says,
for to their power, I bear record. He says, I already told you what
ability they had to give this gift. They didn't have any ability
at all. They didn't have nothing. We don't know where they got
this from. For to their power, I bear record. Yea, and beyond
their power, they were willing of themselves. Paul's saying
there, he goes, I don't know where they came up with this
great gift, this beautiful, wonderful gift they gave. But I know this,
it came from a willing heart. It came out of love and willingness
to help the brethren. Look at verse four. Praying us
with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon
us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints." Now, it appears
that Paul had some reservation in accepting this gift. They
had to pray him with much entreaty. I think Paul was saying, listen,
that's a lot and you guys don't have anything. Maybe you should
hold some of that back. And they said, no, you take it, take everything,
take every bit of it. We want some fellowship in this
thing of this servitude. We want to be involved in this
thing. We would count this a blessing. And they prayed with much entreaty.
Verse 5, and this they did, not as we had hoped, we never expected
this, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us
by the will of God. Now that's a beautiful illustration,
an example of faith there. Paul says, here's what they did,
they gave themselves first to the Lord. They gathered up everything
they had, which was not much, and they let go. They gave it
to Paul, and they said, give this to the church in Jerusalem.
You can have everything we've got. We're letting go, and we're
trusting the Lord's going to take care of us. How are we going
to eat tomorrow? I don't know, but he's going
to do it. Where are we going to sleep? I don't know, but he's
going to take care of it. You take everything we've got. The
Lord's going to take care of us. They gave themselves first
to the Lord, and then to Paul. Look at verse six. Inasmuch that
we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish
in you the same grace also." Now, what they were wanting was
this. They wanted Paul to go to Titus. And they wanted him
to say, hey, Titus, go on down to the churches in Corinth and
tell them about this great gift we gave to the church in Jerusalem.
They wanted Titus to relay that information to the churches in
Corinth. Why, you think? We need to question their motive
on that one. Are they trying to put themselves in competition?
Look at me, type of thing. Look at the great gift we gave.
What about you guys? What are you going to do? No.
They received a blessing because of this. It is more blessing
to give than to receive. They said send Titus down there
and tell him about this gift we gave and tell him about this
great blessing we had through giving this gift. Because we
want them, we want you, the Corinthians, to have the exact same blessing
we did. Let's be clear about something,
folks. The Lord does not need me, and he does not need you,
and he doesn't need my money, and he doesn't need my time,
and he doesn't need my charity. Giving is not for him. He who
controls the lightning at his fingertips does not need me to
keep the lights on in this place. But that's how he's going to
do it. That's the way he's placed it. Giving is not for him. Giving is for us. The blessing
is for us. These people wanted the Corinthians
to have the same blessing that they had. Look at verse 8. He
says, I speak not by commandment, but by the occasion of the foreignness
of others and to prove the sincerity of your love. Paul says, you're
not under law. There's no law concerning this. The Old Testament
economy, the tithing, the 10%, it's gone. It was gone as soon
as Christ showed up. That's all over with. Here's your command
now. Just give according as you love. That's your command. If
you love much, give much. If you don't love much, don't
give much. But there's no command. There's
no law concerning this. Just give. But what Paul's stressing
here is this, is that love is never without action. Love is
meaningless unless love takes action. If you want the greatest
illustration of love in action you could ever see, look at verse
9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through
his poverty might be rich. There's love in action, love
in motion. Now, if you were to ask me, A couple years ago, maybe
a year ago. What is the theme of 2 Corinthians
chapter 8? I would have told you the theme
was giving and generosity. And if I was comfortable around
you and I was honest with you, I would have also told you that
every time I read it, it left me with a sense of despair and
depression and inadequacy. I'm just not giving enough. I'm
not charitable enough to my brethren. I obviously don't love enough
because I'm not giving enough. I'm just not doing enough, and
I did not enjoy reading it. Every time I read it, I walked
away with a sense of despair and inadequacy. And the reason
for that was because I was reading it wrong. And I want to say this.
If you are a sinner in need of mercy, Speaking to sinners right
now, only sinners. If you're a sinner needing mercy
and you read something in this book and you walk away with a
feeling of inadequacy or bondage or despair, you've read it wrong. That's it. You've read it wrong.
There is absolutely nothing but good news for a sinner in this
book. Somebody says, what about reproof?
Doesn't the scripture say the scriptures are good for reproof?
Absolutely, and it comes with this. The Lord reproves whom
he loves. So if I'm reproved by this book,
that means the Lord loves me, and that's good news too. There's
absolutely nothing but good news for a sinner in this book. And
this was my problem. I was reading this wrong. The
theme of 2 Corinthians 8 is not generosity and giving. It's in
there, and you can learn some good things about it, very much.
That's not the theme. You know what the theme is? I'm
ashamed to admit this. Paul tells us in the first verse,
and I read over it time and time again and never saw it. Go back
up there to verse four. Paul says, moreover, brethren,
We do you to it, to it means the point, means what I'm getting
at, what I'm gonna talk about. We do you to it of the grace
of God. That's what 2 Corinthians 8 is
about. It's about the grace of God,
every word of it. That's what Paul's getting at, that's what
Paul wants to talk about, particularly what it deals with is the results
of grace. What happens when the Lord is
gracious to a man? What happens when he visits him
in mercy and grace? That's what's being talked about
here. The first thing I want to show you is this. This church,
this church in Macedonia that Paul uses as his example, they
have very gracious origins. And I think you're going to be
able to identify with them. Turn over to Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16 picks up with
Paul and Timotheus, and they're trying to figure out where to
preach next, where the Lord would have them go to preach the gospel
next. Keep your finger there in 2 Corinthians 8, we'll go
back and look at Acts 16, look at verse 6. Now when they had gone through
Phrygia, this is Paul and Timotheus, and the region of Galatia, and
were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, After
they were come to Messiah, they essayed to go into Bithynia,
but the Spirit suffered them not. And they, passing by Messiah,
came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.
There stood a man of Macedonia, this is Christ, and prayed him,
saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he'd seen
the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called for us to preach the gospel unto
them." Now, this is exactly what grace looks like. As far as I
can tell, when you read this book, the Macedonians had absolutely
no interest in hearing the gospel preached. They had no interest
in Christ. They had no interest in the gospel.
You don't hear or read of any time that they sent a letter
to Paul and said, hey, why don't you come over here and preach to
us? You don't hear about them sending a messenger saying, hey,
why don't you guys come down here and preach the gospel to
us? As far as this book is concerned, as far as we can tell, the Macedonians
had absolutely no interest in Christ or his gospel. And you
know who didn't have any interest in the Macedonians? Paul. He
wanted to go to Asia. Lord forbid him. He wanted to
go to Bithynia. Wouldn't let him go. These two entities, the
Macedonians and the Paul, they had absolutely no interest in
one another. But you know what happened? The
Lord intervened, as he always does for his people. And he appears
as a man of Macedonia. He identifies with his people
in that perfect union. And he tells Paul, you come help.
Who? Go help them? You come help us. Everything he does, he does as
in us. He identified with his people,
these Macedonians, said, Paul, you go down and you come preach
to us. I'm gonna have mercy on these
people. Isn't that exactly where the Lord found you? With no interest,
no interest whatsoever, just going about your life, doing
whatever you're doing, worshiping whatever God you had, and all
of a sudden, the Lord crosses your path with the gospel, and
that's mercy, and that's grace, and that's where it all began.
Now, go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Like I said before, this chapter
deals with grace, but more particularly the results of grace. What happens
when the Lord is gracious to a man, when he visits him with
mercy and grace? Read verse 2 again. He says,
I have that in a great trial of affliction. The abundance
of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their
liberality. Now, three things are mentioned
there, and here's the first thing that's mentioned, is deep poverty. What's the first B attitude?
Remember, remember? Matthew 5.3 says, blessed are
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What
does it mean to be poor in spirit? It means you're a sinner. Where
there's grace, there is deep poverty. When the Lord reveals
himself to a man, when he comes to a man and he reveals himself
and he is gracious to that man, the first thing that man experiences
is this, deep spiritual poverty. You can't come up with the goods.
If salvation is in any way dependent on you to do something to make
it possible, I will not be saved. That's what deep poverty looks
like. And you know what that word actually
means, that phrase, deep poverty? You look it up, it means beggarly.
And I don't know if you guys have any beggars around here.
We drove around Crossville a little bit, I didn't see any. Maybe
you do. In Lexington, we have plenty
of them, right? And you can see them on the street corner begging.
And there's three things you notice immediately. The true
beggars, and I'm not talking about guys who go out and do
that for a living just to make money. I'm talking about guys
who have to do that. They're on the street corner there, they're
begging, and here's the first thing you'll see about a beggar.
He can't provide for himself. If he could, he would. But he
can't. He's on that street corner because
he cannot provide for himself that which he needs to live.
And that's a spiritual beggar as well. You can't provide for
yourself. And here's the second thing you
see about that beggar. If he's going to have what he needs to
live, it's going to be because someone is kind to him. He is
completely dependent on the kindness, the unmerited kindness of someone
else to have what he needs to live. For him to live, somebody's
going to have to come by and they're going to have to be kind
to him. And they're going to have to find the reason to be
kind to him in themselves because he can't do anything for them.
And here's the last thing you'll notice about that beggar. You
see him on that street corner. Nobody owes him a thing. He is
in that condition. That is his condition to own,
and as those cars drive by, one man may stop, and he may reach
some money out, and he may hand it to him, and another man may
drive by. Who's right? The man who stops
and gives or the man who drives by? Who's right? They both are,
because that beggar isn't owed a thing, and if anybody stops,
You know what it is? It's mercy, and it's grace. And
that's what it means to be a spiritual beggar. If I'm going to have
what I need to live, Christ is going to have to provide everything.
He's going to have to look in himself to find the reason to
do it, because I can't do anything for him. And if he were to pass
by and not show me mercy, who is he? He's right, and he's just,
and he's fair. That's a spiritual beggar. That's
the man the Lord saves. Now he mentions deep poverty,
and he mentions joy. And I'm not talking about happiness.
This life is filled with all kinds of things that make us
unhappy. This life is very, very hard.
But every believer, they truly have joy. And I try to pinpoint,
what is the thing in the gospel that gives me so much joy? And
every aspect of it gives me joy. Christ himself, just knowing
him, gives me joy. But this is the thing that gives
me more joy than anything else. It's this, knowing that the gospel
is actually for sinners. The Lord has a people. He has
a people He elected before the foundations of the world. They're
the people who God willed to be saved, and they will be saved,
and that's it. That's the end. But you can identify
those people in this world. You can identify them, and here's
how you can identify whether you're one of those people. You're
a sinner. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into this world
to save sinners. That is the best news I personally
have ever heard. You wanna know whether you're
one of those people? If you're a sinner, if you're a man who's
in deep poverty, you're one who Christ came to save. He says
this, this is Revelation 2, 9, the Lord speaking to the church
in Smyrna. This is the first part, here's what he says. He
says, I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich. Now you think about the terror
of this statement. for a man who is seeking acceptance
with God based on his own works. A man who believes in salvation
by works, he approaches and says, you should show me mercy because
I, because I did this. This is a terrifying statement.
He says, I know your works. I'm a God that you can't hide
anything from. My eyes pierce the deepest crevices of your
heart. I see everything. I see the filth of them. I see
the self-glory of them. I see it all. I see all the wretchedness
of it. I know your works. And they don't
stand up. But to the man who is in deep
poverty, this man who's got nothing to bring to the table, his confession
is, I don't have anything. Everything has to be freely provided
for me. The Lord says this, I know your works. And you know what?
They're all good. Because it's the very history,
it's the very life, and it's the very works of the Lord Jesus
Christ. His perfect law-keeping truly
is for every man who is in deep poverty. That's your law-keeping.
When Christ kept the law, you kept the law too. And you're
blameless. You truly are a righteous man right now before God. He
says, I know your works, they're all good. And he says, I know
your tribulation. I know your works and I know
your tribulation. You know that word tribulation? It means suffering. You know what God demands of
every man born in this world? that he suffers. He demands that
he suffers because every man that is born into this world
is a sinner. That's it. So he must suffer. The justice
of God demands that that man suffer. But when he looks at
this man who is in deep poverty, he says, I know your tribulation.
I know your suffering. I know you've already suffered.
In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, he bore your sins in
his body. He bore you in his body, and
he went to that cross, and he suffered under my wrath for you. And you know what? That means
you've already suffered. You've already been punished,
and your sins have already been put away, and your suffering
is complete. It's over. I see a man who needs
to suffer absolutely no more. You're just before me because
of what Christ has done. He says, I know your works, and
I know your suffering, and I know your poverty, but he gives this
caveat. He says, but thou art rich. He
says, I know. I look at you, man in deep poverty.
My people, I know. You can't come up with the goods.
You can't do anything to please me. And that's absolutely right.
You are in deep poverty in and of yourselves. But here's the
truth of the matter. You're rich. You lack absolutely nothing.
If right now you're a sinner in deep poverty before God, you
lack absolutely nothing before God. You have full acceptance
into the presence of the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
You couldn't be any more loved. You couldn't be any more accepted.
As much as right now Jesus Christ is loved and accepted of his
Father, so are you in him. You may be in poverty, but the
truth is, folks, you're rich, and you lack absolutely nothing.
And he says this. He speaks of deep poverty. He speaks of joy, and he speaks
of liberality. That word's interesting. It means
simplicity or singularity. Let me give you a scripture here.
I'll read this to you. This is 2 Corinthians 11, verse 3. It
says, but I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled
Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity or the singularity that is in Christ Jesus. Now,
aren't you thankful that the Gospel of Christ, it's all singular. It's all singular. There's only
one righteousness, it's His. That's it. We have a singular object
of faith, Christ. That's it. Here's one of the
things I like to think about. If you want to see the simplicity
of the Gospel, I don't think there's anything more simple
than this. What's the one reason I'm going to be saved? What's
one reason you're going to be saved? Christ died for me. That's it. That is the one singular
reason. Go back to the Passover. The
Lord says, I'm going to pass through Egypt. I'm passing by.
I'm killing everybody, all the firstborn. Everybody's going
to die except, there's one, one exception. If he's in the house
with the blood over the door, when I see the blood, I'll pass
by. That's it. And in those Hebrew houses, those
firstborns that were in that house, those houses with the
blood over the door, you think about what kind of men there
were. There were probably men in there that were morally not very good
men, outwardly, committed terrible moral acts. What mattered? Were they in the house with the
blood over the door? There were men in those houses
that were of weak faith, terrified, trembling, not knowing what was
going to happen. What mattered? When I see the blood, I'll pass
over. Moral man, immoral man, weak
faith, strong faith, the only thing God was looking for that
night was the blood. There's a singular reason I want
to be saved and that's it. Because Christ shed his blood for me.
I know that to be the case because he said he died for sinners.
I take that to mean me. But I want to talk for a second,
this thing of singularity, this singularity in the believer's
faith. And we have a beautiful picture of that in our story.
Now, I told you before, these people went to Paul with this
gift, this great gift, and Paul says they gave themselves first
to the Lord. Here's what they did. These deeply
impoverished people, they gathered up everything they had, and they
gave it to Paul, and they said, our hands are off of it. We let
go of every bit of this. You take it. You give it to the
church in Jerusalem. We're trusting the Lord is going to take care
of us. Now let me be clear about something. I'm not advocating
you do that with your bank accounts. I'm not advocating you drain
your bank account and give it all away. That's not what I'm
saying. This is an illustration of great faith. They let go of
everything they had and they simply trusted that the Lord
was going to take care of them. And that's faith. I want to give
you another illustration of that, though. Turn over to Acts 27,
just a second. I think you'll like this. I'm sure many of you are familiar
with this story. Paul's a prisoner, a Roman prisoner. He's on a ship,
and the ship's caught up in a great storm. It's called Europlatinum.
And the sailors, they've lost control of the ship. They're
just twisting the wind right now. They're all afraid they're
going to die. But the Lord visits Paul, and he tells him this.
He says, you fear not. He goes, you can tell everybody
else in that boat to fear not. This is my promise. Everybody in the
ship, I'm going to save the life. Now I'm gonna have to wreck this
ship, because that ship's Christ. So I'm gonna have to wreck this
ship, but everybody in the ship, I'm gonna save them alive. They
had that promise. But the storm raged on, it goes
on for a while, and these sailors, these men on this boat, they
start getting antsy. They start getting scared, and they find
a lifeboat. They find a little dinghy that's
on that big ship. Let's see what happens with it.
Look at verse 30. And as the shipmen were about
to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat, that
little dinghy, into the sea, under color as though they would
have cast anchors out of the foreship, they lied. They said,
we're going to take the big anchors for the big ship. We're going
to use the little rowboat to drag them out further. We're
going to help the ship out. That's man's religion. You've got to
help God out. If he can't weather the storm, you've got to help
him, right? Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers,
except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. Now this is what happened. These
men found a plan B. They had something else other
than the ship. They had a little rowboat. And
they lied. They said, we're going to get
out there and we're going to help the ship out. That's not what it was. In all the middle
of all this, they had this foolish thought, we're safer in this
little rowboat in the middle of the storm than this big old
ship. in which is the promise of God that has led us safe and
sound thus far. They had something else other
than the ship. And Paul tells them, if you have
anything other than the ship, if you have any plan B's, if
you have any safety nets, if you have anywhere else to go
or anywhere else to look, you cannot be saved. Look at verse
32. Then the soldiers cut off the
ropes of the boat and let her fall off. Now folks, where there's
grace, there is singularity in faith. Where you cut ties with
everything else, you let it fall off into the water and drift
off into the darkness, and you are left in the same place that
these sailors were left, with nothing but the ship and the
bare promise of God. You know what's easy to cut ties
with everything else? When you're in deep poverty and
you don't have anything else. If a man has something to bring
before God, He has at least the ability to get better. He'll
never cut ties with that. He never will. He's incapable
of it. Until the man's been brought
to this place where he is in deep poverty and he has absolutely
nothing, it's easy to cut ties with nothing. And all you have
is the ship and all you have is Christ and the bare promise
of God. Everybody in the ship, everybody looking to the ship,
everybody who clings to the ship, he'll be saved. That's it. There's
always singularity in faith. Now, Go back to 2 Corinthians
8, look at verse 3 for a second. Paul says, for to their power
I bear record, and beyond the power they were willing of themselves. Where there is grace, there is
a willingness to be saved by grace. Now, I want to read you
this. Don't turn there, but I'll read
it to you. This is 1 Chronicles 28, verse 9, and this is David
talking to his son Solomon. It says, and thou, Solomon, my
son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a
perfect heart and with a willing mind. Now, do you see the connection
between those two things there? The perfect heart and the willing
mind. When the Lord visits a man in
grace, he gives him that perfect heart. That's the new man in
Christ Jesus, the holy man, the man after God's own heart, that
new man that believes God, that loves God, that's repentance,
had his mind changed. And what accompanies this new
man is this, a willing mind. And this is absolutely necessary.
The Lord has to visit a man in grace and mercy and give this
new heart with this willing mind because this is us by nature,
this is man by nature. We are unwilling. Why will a
man be damned? A man will be damned because
he refuses to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. It will not be
the sovereignty of God that will hold him off. It will not be
his sins that will hold him off. What will damn a man is he will
not come to Christ because he will not be saved by Christ alone.
The issue is glory. Who gets the glory? Man won't
be saved by Christ alone. Because to be saved by Christ
alone, that means man has to take his rightful spot at Christ's
feet as a sinner. And he will be nothing more than
a trophy of the Lord's power and his grace. In heaven, no
one's gonna sing the songs of man. No one's gonna praise any
man. They're gonna praise the God
man. We're going to sing his songs. We're going to talk about
how great he is. And he's going to stand up in that great choir
and say, this is my power and this is my grace. This is how
great I am. I was able to save even Aaron. Look at him. I did that all by
myself. He didn't help a bit. Somebody
that bad, somebody that evil, I was able to save him all by
myself. He's going to get every speck
of the glory. And the natural man says, absolutely not. Let
me ask you this, though. Are you willing to be saved by
Christ alone? And are you willing for Him to get all the glory
in your salvation? I ask myself that a lot. I want
to know, am I willing with that? You know I am. I love that he's
gonna get all the glory in my salvation. When I think about
his character and his person and his work, he deserves it.
He deserves every bit of it. He's the only man that deserves
any glory. I love that. But there's a selfish
motive here, too. My pastor said this a couple
years ago, and I'm gonna keep on repeating it, because it's great.
I want him to get every aspect of the glory of my salvation
for this reason. If any glory is due me, that
means there's something I have to do. If there's any glory left
for me, that means there's a responsibility I have to fulfill to be saved,
and I can't meet that responsibility. I want to be saved all by Him
because it's the only way I can be saved, and I want Him to get
all the glory because that means He's going to do all the work.
That's exactly the way I want it. Look at verse 4. Paul says, praying us with much
entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the
fellowship of the ministering of the saints. Paul said, don't
give this much, this is too much. And they said, no, absolutely
not. You take it, you take every penny of it. These people were
persistent and is insistent. Where there is grace, there is
persistence and there is insistence. Now here's the teaching of this
book. The teaching of the book is this, that before time began,
God loved the people. And He chose those people unto
salvation. And He gave them to the Lord Jesus Christ in the
covenant of grace. The Lord Jesus Christ agreed to be the surety
of those particular people. He came in time. He lived for
those people. He died for those people. He put their sins away.
He said, it is finished. He accomplished their salvation,
theirs alone. The Holy Spirit comes in time.
He regenerates those particular people. He calls them with irresistible,
invincible grace, draws them to Himself in a manner of the
way they can't fight it. and every one of them come, and
every one of them are saved, and not one of them are lost
along the way. And the world's reaction to that is this, then
why are we here? If God's in control, if God's
sovereign, if everything's just gonna happen according to His
will anyways, why are we here? Why are we wasting our time?
If I'll be saved, I'll just be saved, that's it. Well, that
is the answer of a man who the Lord has not revealed Himself
to. Because where there is grace, there is persistence, and there
is insistence. Now, one of my favorite stories
is Jacob in Genesis 32. You remember that story? A man
wrestled with Jacob to the breaking of the dawn. That man was Christ.
And this is what Jacob said, or this is what Christ said at
the breaking of the dawn. He said, turn me loose. Let me
go. And this is what Jacob said. He said, I will not let you go
until you bless me. Now, you can kick me. You can
bite me, you can punch me, you can put me in a headlock. I got
one strength here, only one, that's it. And that's the strength
to cling, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna
cling on to you until you bless me. I have to have your blessing.
I'm not gonna let you go. And you know what happened? He
blessed that man. And that is the response of every
believer. I will not let you go. The kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence. and the violent take it by force."
I hear that. I'm coming. I have to come. I
have to have Christ. He'll be the only way I'll be
saved. I'm clinging to Him. I will not let you go. Listen
to this scripture. This is one of my favorites.
Hebrews 4.16 says, let us therefore come, and this is how we come.
Listen to this word. boldly under the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. What does it mean to come boldly?
It's to come with absolutely no fear of being turned away.
You sinner, you need mercy, you come to Christ. He saves people
just like you and only people like you. You come boldly now
to the throne of grace. If your response to all this
is apathy, Lord never done anything for you. Because anytime there's
grace, there's a fire lit under that man's butt. I got to get
to Christ. I got to have Him. Now look at verse 6. It says, "...insomuch that we desired
Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you
the same grace also." They wanted Titus to go down to Corinth.
Tell these people, tell them about the great gift they've
given, the great blessing they had. They wanted the Corinthians
to have the same blessing that they had. Where there's grace,
there's a desire for others to experience this same grace. Now, Paul said this in 2 Corinthians
10, verse one. If you want to turn over there,
you can. He says, now I pull myself to
seat you. He's speaking to the Corinthians.
He loved these people. I beseech you by what? By the meekness
and gentleness of Christ. Now I find that very interesting.
What other words could he have used there? He could have said,
I beseech you by the power and the commandment of Christ. And
he would have been right. Everyone in this room, every man is commanded,
you abandon your own works and you come to Christ and you believe
on him. He could have said, I beseech you by the power and by the commandment
of Christ, but that's not what he says. He goes, I beseech you
by the meekness and the gentleness of Christ. Imagine that, the
sovereign one, the omnipotent one, the one who holds all men
and all events in the palm of his hand, how does he beseech
his people? With meekness. and with gentleness, with graciousness.
This is a scripture I thought of. This is Isaiah 118. He says,
come now and let us reason together. Come now. The way you're coming
is unreasonable. This thing of coming in your
own works, it's unreasonable. Come now and let us reason together. Though your sins be like scarlet.
Yes, they're bad. It's very, very bad. Though your
sins be like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. In meekness
and gentleness, he says, you come. Come, reason together.
Don't come any other way. Any other way to come to me is
unreasonable. You'll never be saved that way. You just come
just as you are. Yes, it's terrible. Bring all
those sins with you. Don't try to make yourself better.
Don't try to clean yourself up. You come just as you are. You
come, though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be white
as snow. And then he says this. This is 2 Corinthians 5.20. He
says, now then we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did
beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled
to God. This is the Creator. This is
God himself, the Sovereign One, the Omnipotent One, and this
is how he beseeches his people. He speaks to sinners, men in
deep poverty, and this is how he beseeches us. He says this,
be ye reconciled to God. And he says that because to the
sinner, God's already reconciled to you. Christ has already made
your peace with God. If you sit here right now, a
condemned man, you can't come up with the goods, a sinner before
God, I want you to know something, Christ has already made your
peace with God. This is not a thing where if you believe, Christ
will save you. Christ saves a man and then he believes. What you
find out when you first believe is that Christ died for you,
that he saved you, and he did it long before you ever knew
about it. Be ye reconciled to God. You sinner, God's not mad
at you. Christ put away your sin. He removed anything that
would keep God from being at peace with you. And now he put
his weapons up in the armory. They are gone. Now you put your
weapons up too. And you be reconciled to God because there's nothing
but perfect peace. That's meekness and gentleness. That's greatness.
Look at verse 7 of 2 Corinthians 8. Therefore, as you abound in everything,
Paul says, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence,
and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. Now what's he compelling these
people to do? To grow. Where there's grace, there's
growth in grace. Now what does it mean to grow
in grace? First, what does it not mean?
Does that mean a man grows in holiness, in righteousness, righteous
living, things of that nature? Nope, not in the least. As he
is, so are we. That means presently, right now,
in this world. Can Christ get any more holy?
Can Christ get any more righteous? Because if he can't, that means
I can't either, because I'm complete only in him. It is not growing
in righteousness or holiness. What does it mean? I stole this
from somebody, and I don't know who it is, but he deserves a
lot of credit. It's good. The believer grows downward. in views
of himself. That's our personal growth. Every
day I just find out I'm a sinner and nothing more. And it's just
another disappointment. And it's just another sin. Every
day growing downward in views of yourself. Every day upward
in dependence and admiration for the Lord Jesus Christ. Every
day you find out more you need of him. And how great his character
actually is. Just to have a moment in the
day to see him and to just admire his characteristics and his glorious
person. It's amazing, just to have that
brief moment of worship. You grow outward. Outward in
love and in concern for your brethren. That's what it means
to grow in grace. And I used to ask this question.
I want to grow. How do I grow? How do I grow
in grace? Because I want to do that. And
I asked that question for a long time. But you know, it's a bad
question. It's kind of still a silly question, as a matter
of fact. So, this little boy on that fourth row back there.
And right now, here's what he's doing. He's growing. He doesn't
know he's growing. He's not thinking about growing.
And he doesn't notice that he's growing. It's just what comes
naturally to him. What does the believer do? Where
there's grace, there's growth in grace. and we grow just like
a child does. We don't notice our growth, and
we're not trying to grow, and at the end of the day, we don't
see ourselves growing at all. It's hidden from us, and that's
a blessing. That's a mercy that we don't glory in. Others may
see in us. We see it in our brethren, don't we? But we don't see it
in ourselves. How do you grow? You just do. I like thinking
of it this way. Everybody's gonna grow. Every
believer's gonna grow in grace. I'm not giving you a thing to
do. I'm just telling you what's happening. That's it. Now, look at verse nine. I'm sorry, verse eight. Paul says, I speak not by commandment,
but by occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity
of your love. Paul says to the Corinthians,
he's saying here, there's no law. You're not under law, you're
under grace. There's no law concerning this
thing of giving. There's no tithing. You just
give according as you love. Where there's grace, there is
freedom from the law. Now listen to this. This is Romans
6, 14. It says, For sin shall not have dominion over you, for
ye are not under the law, but under grace. Now the first part
of that scripture is hard to get hold of. Sin shall not have
dominion over you. Well, in my experience, how I
feel every single day, it sure feels like sin has dominion over
me. But it doesn't. You want to know why? Because
it says it right there. And the word of God is good enough. Sin
shall not have dominion over you. My pastor's pointed this
out several times. Here's the evidence that sin does not have
dominion over man. He believes the gospel. He truly
does look singularly to Christ alone for every aspect of his
salvation. A man who's under the complete
dominion of sin can't do that. He doesn't have a new nature.
That's the evidence a man does not have sin reigning dominion
over him. He actually believes the gospel. Folks, that sin's
still there. That old man is still there, and he's going to
be with us to the day we die, no doubt. But he says, sin shall
not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law. Not
in any way, shape, or form. The law concerning you. If you're
a man in deep poverty who looks only to Christ, it's satisfied.
In every aspect, in the keeping of it, in the punishment that
it demanded on your behalf, it is completely and utterly satisfied.
And now reckon yourself to be dead to the law. It's got nothing
to say to you. It's satisfied in every way,
shape, or form. So what's the commandment now?
If I have no law, if the law is satisfied with me, I'm not
trying to keep it, I've kept it. It's over. This is the commandment
now, and this is His commandment, that we should believe on the
name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave
His commandment. That's your commandment now.
That's your law. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you love your brethren, and then do what you want. Man
says, if you say that, that's just giving men a license to
sin. It's just a blank check to sin. Answer honestly in your head,
is there anybody inside here right now who wants a blank check
to sin? Because I sure don't. Lord, keep me from sin. My sin's
against God. Now, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. You love your brethren. You're dead to the law. Do what
you want. The problem is, what you want to do is to never sin
again. and to never ever war against your God again. But sin
is my nature and sin is what I do. Until I lay down this old
man, I'm never actually gonna be able to do what it is I truly
wanna do. Now finally this. Look at verse nine. For you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, Yet
for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might
be rich. Everything we've talked about
up to this point has been the effects, the results of grace. What happens when the Lord visits
a man in mercy and grace? But let's get to the heart of
the matter right now. Where does grace come from? What is the
reason for grace? How can God be merciful and gracious
to me, a sinner? and still honor His perfect justice,
His perfect righteous character, found right here, the reason
for grace, Christ stooped. He stooped when He was made a
man. He left His Father, He left the praise of all the angels,
and He was incarnated into this world. He was made our sin. He took on the sins of His people.
He actually took them off of us and put it in Himself. And I don't understand that.
But what I know about that is this, sin can't be in two places
at once. And if it was put in Christ,
that means it was lifted off of me and I bear it no more.
And he was punished. He was punished because he was
guilty. He was made the sins of his people. He became guilty
of those sins. He never sinned. He was always
the spotless lamb. He never committed one sin, but
he was made the sins of his people. He suffered under the wrath of
God and he died. And when he died, that door of
mercy and that door of grace was wide open now to all of God's
people, everyone he died for, at no expense to God's perfect
justice. Righteousness and peace, they
kissed each other. Justice and mercy in perfect
harmony. And now because of that, because
of love in action, we have the very grace of God. And I'm gonna leave you with
this thought. What did these people do? These Macedonians,
what did they do? Here's what they did. They let
go. They let go of everything and they simply trusted God.
That's all I'm gonna do. I hope you will too. Let go of
everything and just trust the Lord Jesus Christ to bring you
home safe and sound. It's been a pleasure being with
you this morning. Thank you for that good news
message. It's a blessing. Let's have a word of prayer. Our most high and heavenly, precious
Father, Lord God Almighty, thank you for the word we just heard
proclaimed, for a good news message for sinners. Lord Christ is all, is all in
all. We praise your holy name. We
thank you for what we've heard. Lord, pray that you would cause
us to go forth from here, not to forget what we've heard. Lord,
keep it fresh in our hearts. Keep us as we go through the
day. Pray that you would cause and allow us to gather again
this evening. to hear your word once more. Lord, again, we'll pray for those
who are weak and weary, brokenhearted. Let you be their strength. Lift them up. Pray most of all that that will
be done for Christ's sake. Amen. Before we sing, before
I forget, most of you probably already know that Sister Lola
went to be with the Lord. Her visitation will be Tuesday
at the Monday funeral home from 11 to 12. And the funeral will
follow. And it was listed on her obituary
that they requested in lieu of flowers to donate to the St.
Jude's Children's Hospital. Be with her family if you can
and keep them in your prayers. Let's stand and we'll sing hymn
number 205. 205. And after this, you'll be at liberty to go, and
we'll meet again at 6 o'clock this evening, Lord willing. Free
from the law. Jesus hath bled, and there is
remission. Cursed by the law, and good by
the law, Christ hath redeemed us once for all. Once for all, the sinner redeemed. Oh Oh now are we free there's no condemnation
Jesus provides a perfect salvation come unto me oh here is sweet
hope come and he saves us Once for all, though no brother
believe in, Leaning to the cross, the burden will fall. God has redeemed us once for
all. His grace will keep us from falling,
Passing from death to life and His love, Blessed salvation once
for all. Once for all, O sinner, receive
Him, in the Don't you think this is pretty? There's this, there's this, there's
this. They're about to put each other
on.