Morning, everybody. If you would
turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. We're
going to consider the first nine verses this morning. I'd like
to begin just by reading it so we can understand what we're
going to be talking about this morning. 2 Corinthians chapter 8, and just
pick up in verse 1 there. Paul says, moreover brethren,
we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches
of Macedonia. Now, Paul's addressing the churches
in Corinth at this time. He's got something to tell them,
something he wants to talk about. He's going to use the churches
in Macedonia as his illustration, as an example. Go to verse two.
It says, having a great trial of affliction, The abundance
of their joy and their deep poverty abounded under the riches of
their Now what's happening here is the church in Jerusalem had
fallen on hard times. I'm not sure exactly what happened.
They all lost their jobs. There was a famine, something
like that, but they were all poor. And Paul was going around
to the different churches and he was taking up a collection
for these people. What's interesting is this church in Macedonia,
they had fallen on the same hard times. These people were impoverished. In fact, the scripture says they're
in deep poverty here. Normally poverty would lead to
misery, but it doesn't in their case. Their deep poverty led
to an abundance of joy, and that joy led to generosity and liberality. They gave a great gift, an amazing
gift, Paul says here, to this church in Jerusalem who was in
need. Now, look at verse 3. He says,
for to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power,
they were willing of themselves. Paul says, I've already told
you what their level of ability was to give this gift. They didn't
have anything. They were poor. Somehow or another, they came
up with this great gift. They did it for this one reason,
though, because they were willing. No one twisted their arm, they had
a willing heart. Look at verse 4, it says, praying
us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take
upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. He's
saying, I was hesitant to take the gift when they first offered
it. Seeing their poverty, I didn't want to take it, but they were
insistent. They said, no, we're not taking no for an answer,
take it. Verse 5, And this they did, not as we hoped, not as
we expected, we didn't expect this from us, but first gave
their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. He said, by the will of God,
the first cause behind all things. You know what these people did?
They let go. They gathered up everything they had, all their
sense of security, all the provisions, they took everything they have
and they gave it to Paul. And they said, our hands are
off this thing. Take it all, take everything we have, we're
trusting the Lord's gonna take care of us. No safety net, no
plan B, take it all. Verse six, he said, in so much
that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also
finish in you the same grace also. What they were saying was,
Paul, send Titus and see if he'll go down to Corinth and see if
that church in Corinth, the churches down there, if they'd like to
give a gift as well. Why would they do this? You think
they're bragging right now? Are they trying to put themselves
in competition with the church in Corinth? Send Titus down there
and have him tell them about the great gift we gave and see
if they'll match it. Is that what's going on? No.
This church in Macedonia was so greatly blessed by this opportunity
to give. It is more blessed to give than
to receive. They were so blessed by this
opportunity, they wanted the church in the Corinth to experience
this same blessing. Send Titus down there, see if
they'd like to give a gift, because we want them to have the same
blessing we have. Look at verse seven, therefore as you abound
in everything in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all diligence
and in your love to us, see that you abound in this grace also,
this grace of generosity. I speak not by commandment, but
by the occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity
of your love. He's saying there's no law here,
no law whatsoever. That Old Testament economy you
had to tithe, you had to give 10%, that's gone, it's over with.
Just give according as you love. That's it. Love always takes
action. In verse 9, we see love in action. 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. Now I've been reading through
this chapter for the last couple weeks. And if you would have
asked me last week, what's the theme of 2 Corinthians chapter
eight? You know what I've told you? I would have told you that
it was giving and generosity. And I would have been wrong.
I would also have to tell you that every time I read it, I
read through this, I left with a sense of despair and inadequacy.
Not given enough, right? Not given enough money, not given
enough time, just sheer and utter bondage. I wanna be clear about
this. There is nothing in this book
but good news for a sinner. If you are a sinner and you are
in need of mercy, and you read something from this book and
you leave feeling inadequate and in bondage and in despair,
you've read it wrong, just like I did. Even the reproof, the
correction the scriptures provide, it comes with this encouragement,
the Lord corrects who he loves. There's nothing but good things
inside here, and this was my problem, I wasn't reading it
right. The theme of 2 Corinthians 8 is not giving, it's not generosity,
the theme is the grace of God. Actuality the results of the
grace of God you want to see that go back to verse 1 Paul says moreover brethren We
do you to wit you know what that means the point what I want to
proclaim or declare to you we do you to wit of the grace of
God bestowed upon on the churches in Macedonia. What's Paul's point? What's his theme? What does he
want to talk about in this epistle? I want to talk to you about the
grace of God. And I love how he says the grace of God bestowed.
Those two words, grace and bestowed, they go very well together. These
Macedonians, they didn't deserve it. They hadn't earned anything. If anything, they had demerited
the kindness of God, but yet the Lord freely gave to them.
That's grace. In fact, this church has very
gracious origins. Their origins are an example
of grace. Turn over to Acts chapter 16. Let me show you this. This is Paul and Timotheus,
and they're seeking the Lord's face as to where they're supposed
to preach next. So look at verse 6, Acts chapter 16. It says,
now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia
and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
after they were gone to Mesia, they assayed to go into Bithynia,
but the Spirit suffered them not. And a passing by Messiah
came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul the knight.
There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, Come
over into Macedonia and help us. Now stop there just a minute.
Who's that man of Macedonia? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a beautiful picture of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Who
does the Lord Jesus Christ identify with? His people. He's a man
of his chosen people. He's a man of Macedonia. And
here's what he tells the Paul. You come help us. Not them. Come help us. Everything he did,
he did as an us. Paul, I got a people here. I've
loved these people before the foundations of the world were
ever built. And here's the thing, you're going to go and you're
going to preach the Gospel to them and they're going to receive it. They're
going to hear it. We're going to be gracious to these folks. Now
look at verse 10, And after he had seen the vision, immediately
we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the
Lord had called us for to preach the Gospel unto them. Now this
is a beautiful picture of grace. These Macedonians right here,
we don't read anywhere that they had any interest in having Paul
come preach the Gospel to them. They didn't send an envoy on
to Paul. They didn't write any letters or anything like that. As far as
we know, he had zero interest of having Paul come preach to
them. You know what's interesting, too? Paul had no initial interest
in preaching to them. He wanted to go to Asia first.
Then he wanted to go to Bithynia. And the Lord said, no. What happened?
There are two parties here that couldn't be further apart. If
you had to pick two parties that had less interest in coming into
contact, it was the Macedonians and Paul. But you know what happened?
The grace of God happened. God intervened. He sends Paul
this vision. He says here's where you're gonna
go. You're gonna go to the Macedonians. They didn't deserve it They weren't
interested. They hadn't earned it. They were
just like everybody else but because of the grace of God Paul
preached the gospel them the Lord giving When nothing's been
merited Now go back to your text verses two through eight we see
the results of grace where there is grace there is everything
we see here so look at verse two again says how that in a great trial
affliction The abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded
under the riches of their liberality. Number one, where there is grace,
there is deep spiritual poverty. Matthew 5.3, the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking, he says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of God. You know what it means to be
poor in spirit? It means to be a sinner. That's
all it means. To be bankrupt of anything God
demands. To have absolutely nothing to
bring to the table. That's what it means to be poor
in spirit. And this is crucial to our understanding. It is not
that a man naturally comes to his knowledge that he is a sinner
before God and he is in need of mercy. And the Lord rewards
him with mercy and grace because he naturally came to that conclusion.
The natural man can't see his sin. He does not know that he
is in deep poverty. Here's what happens. The Lord
comes to a man where he is at, in his sin, in his bondage, and
he is merciful and he is gracious to that man. And you know what
happens? That man finds himself in deep spiritual poverty. He becomes a sinner before God.
Was looking this this term deep poverty, you know, that means
it means beggarly Beggarly, it's actually worth There's three
things. I know about a beggar. You've
probably heard this three things. Number one a beggar can't provide
for himself That's why he's begging He cannot provide those things.
He needs to live if you're a spiritual beggar a man who's poor and spirit
before God You know what? You can't provide what God demands
What does he demand he demands perfection? He demands holiness. He demands righteousness, and
you can't come up with the goods. A spiritual beggar is this. He
is completely dependent on the kindness of someone else to have
everything he needs to live. And if you're a spiritual beggar,
you are completely and utterly dependent upon the grace, the
kindness of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, providing everything
you need to live before him. And here's the third thing, the
hallmark of the beggar. Nobody owes a beggar anything.
A beggar on the street corner, somebody stops, passes by his
way, and puts a dollar down at his feet, you know what that
is? That's grace. And if somebody passes by, you know what that
is? That's right. Nobody owes a beggar anything. This is the
hallmark of the spiritual beggar. If the Lord comes your way, and
he passes by, and he stops, and he is merciful, and he is gracious,
that's mercy and grace. And if he walks on, and he sovereignly
passes you by, that's justice. That's a spiritual beggar right
there, a beggarly, a man in deep poverty. But they didn't just
have deep poverty. You know what else they had?
They had an abundance of joy. Where there is grace, there is
always joy. Now, I am not talking about happiness.
There's all kinds of unhappiness in this life. There's trial,
there's tribulation, there's sorrow, there's loneliness. All
these things cause unhappiness. I'm talking about the constant
joy every believer experiences. It's the joy of this, of knowing
that Christ and His gospel is for men in deep poverty. It's
for sinners. I want to show you something.
Turn to Revelations chapter 2. I want you to see this. Revelation chapter 2 and I want
you to pick him in verse 9. This is the Lord speaking to the church
in Smyrna Revelations 2 verse 9 he says
I know thy works and Tribulation and poverty, but what does he
say next? but Thou art rich. Now, here is joy. Every believer
has a reason for great joy if you are an impoverished man before
God. If you're a sinner before God,
you know what that means? It means you're actually rich.
He mentions three things here when he speaks to the people
in Smyrna. He says, number one, I know your works. I want to say this
first. To a man who is approaching unto God, seeking salvation based
on something he's done on his own merits, I want you to know
this, he knows your works. He sees the self-interest in
it. He sees the self-motivation. He sees the filth of it. We clean
up the cup around each other real well. We put up on a good
front. God looks on the hard. He knows your works. But when
he looks upon the impoverished man, the man who has nothing
before God, who comes, he's just a mercy beggar. When he looks
upon that man, you know what he says? He says, I see your
works. And you know what he sees? He
sees the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ. He sees a man dressed
in fine linen, clean and white, the very righteousness of Christ.
He sees a man who has a perfect history. Everything Jesus Christ
has done, that man has done. That's his history. He has perfection
before God. When he looks at that man he
sees the works of Jesus Christ. He says, I know your works. He
says, and I know your tribulation. I know your suffering. And when
he looks upon the impoverished man he does, he sees suffering.
He sees a man drenched in blood. He sees the sufferings of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And you know the sufferings of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered in a way that no man has ever
suffered. He suffered under the perfection, under the satisfaction
of God. No one else could suffer enough
to satisfy God, but this man did. Taking on the sins of his
people, suffering under the hot wrath of God, he died. He suffered
sufficiently under the wrath of God. And because of this he
looks at at every mercy beggar, and he says, your suffering's
complete. There's no more suffering for you. You've already been
punished. The reason for the punishment has been removed.
The sin, it's gone. There's nothing left. You're drenched in blood.
He sees your suffering. Last thing he says, and I know you're
poverty, but you're actually rich. I know your experience. I know when you look inside yourself,
you see absolutely nothing. And truly, in and of yourself,
there is nothing. But you're not responsible for
you. He's responsible for you. And everything he has, you have. In him, you're righteous. In
him, you have the free forgiveness of sins. In him, you have free
access to me as him being your vehicle any time you want. In
him, you have free favor with me all the time, and that is
never going to change. Yes, I know you're poverty stricken
in and of yourself. In him, you're rich. You have
everything. You lack absolutely nothing. Is that not a cause
for joy? Where there's grace, there's
liberality. It's the third thing these people
experience, liberality. You know what that word means?
It means simplicity or singularity. Let me read this to you. This
is 2 Corinthians 11, verse three. This is Paul speaking to the
Corinthians again. He 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. Now, this topic, the singularity
of the Lord Jesus Christ in salvation, His onliness, it demands its
own message. It demands five messages. We're going to talk
of just a few things. We could talk all day about His
blood. His blood is the singular reason
that the wrath of God is never going to touch us. I want you
to, I was thinking about this example this morning in the ark.
Lord told Nodah how to build the ark. He says, you pitch it
within and without. That pitch was a tar-like substance.
And that represents, that's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's the shedding of His blood. It was a waterproofing thing.
So when they're in the ark, the wrath of God, that water, what
was the one reason that that water, the wrath of God, did
not seep in that boat and drown them all? It was the pitch. It
was the blood. What is the one reason that the
wrath of God is never going to touch the impoverished man? The
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's it. His resurrection is
the singular token that what the Lord Jesus Christ came to
do He actually accomplished. What did He come to do? He came
to single-handedly accomplish the salvation of all the Father
gave Him before time began. And the resurrection is the sign,
is the singular token that what He came to do He accomplished
it. It really is done. If there were
any sins that he was responsible for atoning for that were left
unatoned for, he would still be dead. But because God raised
him from the dead, that's the sign. It's over with. There's
nothing left for you to do. His mediatorship, there's one
God and there's one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ,
the righteous. There's only one man who could
actually make peace between God who demands holiness and a sinful
people who can't provide anything. One man, that's it. But here's
what I want to talk about this morning. Every impoverished man
where there is grace, There is singularity in faith. The Lord
Jesus Christ is your singular hope. And we have a beautiful
example of that in our text. Look at verse five. And this they did, Paul said,
not as we hoped, we didn't expect that they were gonna give this
great gift, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto
us by the will of God. Now let's stop there for a second,
the will of God. Why did they do this right here? For one reason,
the first cause behind everything, the will of God. That is always
done. But what did they do? They gathered up everything they
had. These impoverished people gathered everything they had
and they gave it a pull and they let go. I said, that's it. We've got no safety net. We've
got no plan B. We've got no personal security.
We're giving it all up. And they simply trusted that
the Lord was going to take care of them. Let me be clear about
this. I am not advocating anyone drain their bank account this
day and give everything they have. I am talking about faith. What is
faith? It is clinging to the Lord Jesus
Christ, but it's also letting go of everything else. Now, let
me give you another example. Turn to Acts chapter 27. I love
this story. It's one of my favorites. I'll give you the backstory on
this while you're turning there. Paul is a prisoner on a ship and he's
heading to Rome. And along the way, they find some bad weather. And this bad weather was so bad
that the crew and everybody on board thought they were all going
to die. But the Lord came to Paul in a vision. He told Paul,
he said, I'm going to wreck this ship. But everybody on board
is going to be saved alive. I'm going to save everybody alive.
This ship's going down. That's the way it is. That's a beautiful
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He gets you to the shore safe
and sound. But the ship had to be wrecked along the way. He
had to die. But he says, I'm going to save everybody alive
on board. I'm going to wreck this ship. I'm going to save
everybody here. And so he tells the crew, the crew says, OK,
well, time goes on. Midnight comes they perceive
their near land and they get afraid They think that ship is
gonna crash up against the cliffs and the rocks now look at verse
30 and let's see what happens And as the shipmen were about
to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat, they
had a little lifeboat, into the sea under color as though they
would have cast anchors out of the foreship, Paul said to the
centurion, to the soldiers, accept these abide in the ship. Ye cannot
be saved. Now let me tell you what's going
on here. What these men found, they had this big ship, hundreds
of men on there. On that boat, they had a little lifeboat. They
had a safety net. They had a plan B. And when times
got tough and they got scared, they said, Paul, we don't believe
you. The promise of God is not good enough for us. We don't
believe him. We're going to hop an old plan
B over here. We're going to let down this John boat. We're going
to get in that boat and we're going to sail off and we're going to
find safety in this boat. And Paul said, if you do that,
if you take old plan B there, if there are any plan B's or
there are any safety nets, Nobody's going to live. You cannot be
safe. Look what they did. Verse 32.
Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her
fall off. They had a plan B. They had a
safety net. They had something else other
than the bare word of God, the promise of God and that ship.
And you know what? They cut it off and they watched
it drift out in the night. Now, here's my point. Faith is
singular. It is in Christ alone. There
are no plan B's where there is grace. There is singularity in
faith We cling to Christ alone and let go of anything else of
an experience of a work of an Whatever it may be whatever else
we may cling to we cut ties with that and we cling to Christ alone
Now go back to your text look at verse 3 Paul says, verse three, for to
their power I bear record. Yea, and beyond their power they
were willing of themselves. Where there is grace, there's
willingness. Willingness to be saved by grace. Listen to this, this is First
Chronicles 28.9. This is King David speaking to his son Solomon. He says this, 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 David makes a connection
there. A connection between a perfect
heart and a willing mind. What is that perfect heart? That's
the new man in Christ Jesus. That is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. That is that perfect new man, that holy man that never
changes, that is immutable, that is inside. It is the new birth
in every believer. And David draws a conclusion
here. Where there is that, where there is a perfect heart, a new
man in Christ Jesus, you know what there is? There is willingness.
There is a willing mind. You are willing to be saved by
the sheer grace of God alone. And that is completely contrary
to the natural will. Now, this is the natural man.
He will not be saved under God's terms. He refuses. He will not
be saved by Christ alone. Why? Because if you're saved
by Christ alone, he gets all the glory. And that's what the
natural man wants more than anything else. He wants his own glory.
He's willing to die to have it. He wants his own glory. And if
you say this, if you're to be saved by Christ, you will simply
be a trophy on the wall. Your job, your purpose will be
to proclaim, he was powerful enough, gracious enough to save
somebody like me. You tell a man that, if you're
saved by Christ, that's your purpose. He says, I won't have
anything to do with that. You have to be made willing.
David said, thy people will be willing in the day of thy power.
And we're not just talking about salvation here, it's everything.
Everything. What do you want? I want a lot
of things. I think about things all the
time. I want, you know what I want? I want the will of God to be done. Our
constant prayer is, whatever your will is, just cause my will
to fall right in line with that. Whatever you want, cause me to
want that thing. Whatever you don't want, cause me to not want
that thing. What do you want? You want the will of God to be
done. Look at verse four. Paul said,
praying us with much entreaty that we should receive the gift
and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering of the saints. Paul said, I'm hesitant. I didn't
want to take this gift. But these things, these people
were insistent and persistent. Where there is grace, there's
insistence and there's persistence. Now, this is the teaching of
this book. The teaching is that salvation is done. The story
of salvation, the conclusion of salvation, it's all over,
it's historical. Before time began God loved a
people, He chose a people in Jesus Christ. He gave those to
Christ in the Covenant of Grace. He said, you are responsible
for these people. The Lord Jesus Christ came in time and He shed
His precious blood for those particular people. In time the
Holy Spirit comes to those particular people. He calls them with irresistible,
invincible grace and they come. They believe on Christ. And along
the way not one of them is ever lost. It's already done. If you
tell that to the world they say you have an apathetic religion.
Why? Why go to church? Why pray? Why beg for mercy? What's the
point? Because God chose a people. because there is salvation for
sinners. It's never once bred apathy in
a believer. It certainly didn't Jacob. Remember
Genesis chapter 32? A man wrestled with Jacob. Jacob
didn't wrestle with a man. A man wrestled with Jacob. God
initiated this, the man Christ Jesus. He wrestled with him to
the breaking of the day. And when the day broke, the Lord
said to him, turn me loose, let me go. What was Jacob's reply?
I will not let you go until you bless me. If you want to kick
me in the head and drag me around and try to throw me off a cliff,
you do whatever you have to do. I'm not letting go. Not until
you bless me. Persistence and insistence. And
we also know this, my salvation is not based on my grip strength
on Christ. It is based on his grip strength
on me. Faith believes that. But we thrive
off scriptures like this. Hebrews 4.16, let us therefore
come boldly now to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. It says come boldly.
So you know what? We come boldly. What does it
mean to come boldly with no fear of being turned away? Come to
Christ. The only way you'll be turned
away is if you have something to buy with But if your poverty
stricken you have nothing to buy with it's free. Take it Have
mercy have grace. It's for you Look at verse 6 insomuch that we desired Titus
that as he had begun so he would also finish in you this same
grace also." They are saying, Paul send Titus down to the churches
in Corinth. We want them to have this same
blessing we have. We have been so blessed by this
opportunity to give. We want them to experience the
same thing. Send them down there. Where there is a grace there
is a desire for others to be recipients of this grace. Now
you are there, turn over a few pages to 2 Corinthians chapter
10. Listen to what Paul says to the
Corinthians again, verse 1. It says, Now I, Paul, myself,
beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Now Paul loved these people.
He loved the Corinthians and he is beseeching these people
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to come to him. He beseeches
them. But how does he beseech them? Does he beseech them through
the power and the authority of Jesus Christ? If he would have
said that, he wouldn't have been wrong. It is a commandment. Come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a command, but that's not
what he says. He goes, through the meekness and the gentleness
of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, he says,
I'm meek and I'm lowly in spirit. You think of this, the God of
all power and all authority, the first cause behind all things.
How does he beseech his people? How does he call us out? With
meekness and with gentleness. Let me show you another one.
Turn to 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20. It sums up what we're talking
about here. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20.
Look at this. Paul says, now then, we are ambassadors for
Christ. Every believer is. Where there's grace, there's
a desire for others to receive the same grace. Now then, we
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by
us. Well, how does he do that? We
pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. This is the Creator, the Almighty,
all-powerful Creator, addressing the creature. And how does He
beseech him? He says, you be reconciled to me. He's speaking
to the poverty-stricken man, the sinner, the man who has absolutely
nothing before him. He says, I'm not mad at you.
The Lord Jesus Christ has made your peace with me, and I've
put up my weapons of war. They're back in the armory. Now
you put up yours too. Be ye reconciled. I'm not mad
at you. And if you're a sinner in need
of mercy, Christ is your only hope, God is not mad at you.
He has put up his weapons of warfare against you. They're
in the armory. Now, you be reconciled unto God. He says, stop rebelling. Stop kicking against me. Beat
your spears into plows. The war's over. Be ye reconciled
to God. I'll never get over that. The
meekness and gentleness of the Almighty God saying, you're reconciled
to me. Now be reconciled. Back to your
text, look at verse 7. Verse 7, therefore as you abound
in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all diligence
and in your love to us, see that you abound in this grace also,
this grace of generosity. Where there is grace, there is
growth in grace. That's what that word abound
means. It means to grow, to excel. There is growth in grace. And
I was looking at all these things. I want to grow in all these things,
in faith. Independence on the Lord Jesus
Christ in utterance inability to communicate the gospel to
other people in knowledge and understanding of the Lord Jesus
Christ actually knowing him in Diligence in love and generosity.
I want to grow in all those things. And so this question occurred
to me. How do I do that? How do you do that That's a stupid
question My kids are sitting on that pew right now You know
what? They're doing They're growing.
They're not trying to grow. They're not sitting there, I'm
trying to grow over here. They're growing presently right
now. They have absolutely no idea. You know what you do when
you've been shown grace? You grow. It will naturally happens. Now what does it mean to grow
in grace? Let's start with this. What does it not mean to grow
in grace? Does it mean I grow in holiness? Righteousness, favor,
or acceptance with God. We have those things completely
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You couldn't get any more holy,
any more favored, any more accepted by God right now than ever before.
This is what John says, 1 John 4, 17, as he is, so are we. Although it's completely contrary
to our experience, in this world, it's not growing in holiness
and righteousness and favor with God. All those things are taken
care of. What does it mean to grow in grace? I don't know who
I stole this from, I just remember hearing it over time, but I'll
say it to you. It means this, growing downward in views of
yourself. Lord just constantly exposing
you, you're a sinner, nothing more. You grow upward in dependence
and admiration and rejoicing to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you grow outward in love and concern for your brethren. That's
what it means to grow in grace. And this is the beautiful part,
that one who's growing, this object of grace that grows, he
doesn't know he's growing. He has no idea. Other people
may be able to see it, but you can't. And that's a blessing.
The Lord hides that from us. So we wouldn't find any hope
in it. That we wouldn't glory in it. Our own growth is hid
from us. I'm a sinner. Nothing more. Other people may
see it, but it's hid from us. I want to be clear about this.
I've listened to people say, well you need to start growing.
Things like that. That's foolishness. I'm not telling you what to do.
I'm telling you what's happening. Right now you're growing. You're
going in grace. Verse 8. Paul says, I speak not by commandment,
but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity
of your love. Now what Paul's saying here is
he's talking about generosity and giving. He said it used to
be you had to give 10%, right? The tithing, right? And that
was under the Old Testament law, the Old Testament economy. He
said that's gone away with. It's over with, the law is done.
There's no commandment concerning this, just give according as
you love. Where there is grace, there is freedom from the law. Turn over here, turn to Romans
chapter six. Romans chapter six and look at
verse 14. Paul says, for sin shall not
have dominion over you. For ye are not under the law,
but under grace. Now let's stop here and let's
get this out of the way real quick. That statement, sin shall
not have dominion over you. Let's just get this out of the
way. That is completely contrary to our experience, isn't it?
being honest here, it feels like every single day sin has complete
and utter dominion over me. And if we just leave the outward
actions out of it and just meditate on the heart for a second and
we think about the wicked motives, the evil desires, the covetousness,
the envies, the jealousies, the conclusion we come to, sin has
complete dominion over me. That's how we feel every single
day. That is our experience. But that's not so. And you want
to know why I know that? It's because it says it right
here. God promised it. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. Okay, Lord, you said it, so it must be so. Even though
it feels that way, it must be so. But let me see if I can explain
this simply. What is the defining attribute
of a man that is under the grace of God versus a man who's under
the law? What distinguishes between the
two? Man who's under grace, his only hope of salvation is the
Lord Jesus Christ, Christ in him crucified alone. No plan
B's, no Christ in. That's all he's got. If that's
where you're at, you're under grace. A man who's under the
law, he's looking somewhere else. He's looking at himself somewhere
along the way. Now, right now, you know where
you fall on that. Right now, you know, either your only hope
is Christ or you have another hope. You have a plan B somewhere
along the way. But if all you have is Christ,
you're not under law. You're under grace. And if all
you have in Christ, that means you have a new man in Christ
Jesus. You have that perfect heart David was talking about,
that holy man that is holy and unblameable and unapprovable
before God. And he is free from sin. And since he is free from
sin, you know what he's free from? The law. because the law
is satisfied with that man. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
kept the law and His perfect law keeping is my law keeping. The law has absolutely nothing
to say to me because Christ kept the law and in Him I kept the
law too. So if this is you, your only
hope is Christ, that means you are not under law, you are under
grace. And I can say this, believe God, trust the Lord Jesus Christ
and do what you want. Now somebody says, you just gave
somebody a free license to sin. No, and Paul anticipated that.
Look at verse 15. He says, what then? Shall we
sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God
forbid. And you know what? I didn't have
to read that to any of you. You intuitively knew that. This
is spiritually intuitive. And an unbeliever wants to run
with that and look at it as a free blank check for sin, let him
do it. That's none of my business. But
I have no problem looking at every believer saying, believe
God. Trust the Lord Jesus Christ and
do what you want. You are free from the law It
has absolutely nothing to say to you Now let's look at verse 8 again Paul says I speak not by commandment
but by the occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity
of your love. And what Paul is saying there
is that love does. The sincerity of love can be
proven by what it does. Love is never without action. Now, here is love in action. Verse nine. 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. This proved the love the Lord
Jesus Christ had for his people. Love is never without action.
This was the proving ground of his love. How much did he love
his elect that he who is rich Rich in all things in praise
in his father. Rich in the praise of angels.
Rich in the presence of his father. This man, because he loved his
people, he was born in a man's body. this God man, he became
a man. Then he took another stoop and
he became the sins of his people. This man who knew no sin and
did no sin became sin. And then he took another stoop
and he suffered the worst death any man has probably ever suffered,
alone in darkness, his father not holding his hand, completely
cut off from him. He did all this. He lost all
his riches. He became poor. So the we, the
impoverished men, spiritually poor before God, We might be
rich. We have everything in him free
access free favor. That's love and action folks
That is the reason for grace Now What did the Macedonians
do? They let go I Gathered up everything
I had Every plan B every safety net they gathered it all up.
They gave it to Paul. They said Our hands are off of
this thing. We're letting go and they trust
the Lord was gonna take care of them you let go. Let go of everything else. Everything
else that's not Christ, you let go and you cling to the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's where I'm going to leave
you.