I want to speak this morning
primarily on verse 5, on this subject, the best donation, the
best donation. Paul says, and this they did,
speaking of the Macedonians, speaking of those early Christians
that made up the church, the churches of Macedonia, he said,
and this they did, not as we hoped. meaning that paul had
no expectation that these people would do what they did in giving
uh... to the poor saints giving to
the fund uh... for the poor saints at uh... jerusalem he had no idea that
they would give as much as they would end up giving he says we
didn't hope for this we didn't hope for it we didn't expect
it But he says, but first, here's what they did. They first gave
their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. They first gave their own selves
to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. Now the Apostle
Paul uses the churches of Macedonia and their liberality, their giving
out of their deep poverty, giving in a very liberal way beyond
their power. He says, I bear record, yea,
beyond their power they were willing of themselves and they
prayed us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift
and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
Here the churches of Macedonia are used as an example now then
we see were that paul in verse six he said in so much these
people have been an example they have given beyond their ability
they've given more than we ever hope they would and they've given
so much now he said we use our tires that he had begun so that
also finish in you the same grace also other words all recognizes
here that To give is the grace of God. Whether a man gives of
himself or of his means, it is the grace of God in a man that
enables him to give. It is God's grace. So Paul said,
we desired that Titus, that he would continue to minister among
you to the very same end. That you would be able to give
willingly and that you'd be able to give as God has enabled you. Therefore, he says, as you abound
in everything. Paul said the church at Corinth
was a rich church. He said you abound in everything,
and then he spells out some of the areas in which they had been
enriched and in which they abounded. And he said in faith is one of
them. You abound in faith. You believe God. You're those
who trust God. And the testimony of the church
at Corinth is that if God says anything, we believe it. and
that if God's will is spelled out to us, that we accept it. We believe His Word. We believe
His doctrine. We believe His truth. And we
are believers. We believe in God. And then in
utterance, meaning that they were blessed by the Holy Spirit
to have a word from God. God was in their midst speaking
Through the brotherhood, through the fellowship of the brethren,
God was visiting them. God was giving their elders and
their preachers a message. God was saying something through
their preachers, and the people were enabled to receive what
was being given. There was utterance given. Now,
it's a tremendous thing that when the preacher speaks, when
he preaches, if God is pleased, that through him there is a word
spoken to the hearts of those that listen to him. Many, many
times, and I've been in places where that I would sit and listen,
and I would never hear anything at all that was said. Everything
that was said might have been good, it might have been alright,
but there was no utterance between that man's spirit and soul and
my own soul. I didn't get anything out of
it. There wasn't anything there for me. There was no utterance
there. The gift of utterance is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
enabling a man to speak to your heart and to speak to somebody
else's heart, at the same time, there's something that flows
between the preacher and the people. And Paul said, you people
abound in this gift. You have utterance as well as
faith. And then he said, knowledge.
You have knowledge. You know God. You know the one
true and living God. You know Jesus Christ, His Son,
whom He has sent. You have some knowledge. And
you have knowledge of the Word and will of God. And in all diligence,
he says, and in your love to us, see that you abound in this
grace also. I want you to be diligent, and
I want you to see that you abound in this grace that I'm talking
about. This grace of giving. I want you to see to it that
you abound in that also. In other words, we want all the
bases covered. And we want you to be a well-rounded
Christian. We want you to be an imitator
of those in the Macedonia churches. Now then, he says, I speak not
by commandment, meaning that God has not given me a commandment
to come into your presence to speak to you about this. or to
write to you about this. I speak not by direct commandment
from God on this issue." But notice this, but he says, I speak
to you by occasion of the forwardness of others. In other words, because
these churches of Macedonia have set the example because they've
set the example, because they have, as it were, given beyond
their means to the poor saints at Jerusalem to build up the
fund to enable us to minister to those poor saints. He says,
because of their example and occasion, he said, and then also
to prove the sincerity of your love. In other words, it'll be
a proof of your love as to whether or not this grace of God is found
in you. And then he cites in verse 9,
he cites that which would surely stimulate the hearts of God's
people whenever they hear this to be willing to give and to,
as it were, to imitate the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
here's the grace of true giving. It's in verse 9. For ye know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what is, Paul, the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ? That though He was rich, Christ
was rich. He was rich in heavenly treasures.
The Lord Jesus was rich in that he came out from heaven, as it
were, with the garments of salvation to bestow upon poor, trembling
sinners. He came out of heaven with all
in his treasure that the people of God would need. He came out
from heaven, the covenant full of blessing for and on the behalf
of his people. He came out of heaven and he
had with him great riches. Which, look at this, though he
was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. That means that
the Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily became poor. He became poor. Now no man is going to give himself
to the Lord. No boy, no girl, no woman is
going to ever give themselves to the Lord like the Macedonian
Christians did until they learn this truth. Until they learn
that the God that we worship and the God that we serve is
a God that has outgiven us and regardless of what we're ever
able to give, the Lord Jesus Christ has outgiven us and He
always will outgive us. God is a giving God, and the
people of God imitate God. They're not imitating necessarily
other churches and themselves, although Paul used the churches
of Macedonia as an occasion to remind this people that they
ought to prove the sincerity of their love and have the same
grace of these churches. But the real object which we're
to focus our attention upon is the Lord Jesus Christ himself
and that grace which was in him which enabled him for our sakes
to become poor. Now the Lord Jesus when he became
poor that means that he was stripped of all of his garments the Lord
Jesus naked went to the cross and the Lord Jesus Christ gave
up He gave up, as it were, His innocence as He stood before
God when He was made to be sin for me, when He was made to be
sin for you. The Lord Jesus stood in our room,
our stead, our place, and He was numbered with the transgressors. And he was stripped of everything,
even the fellowship of a holy God, because he was, as we said,
numbered with the transgressors. And he became a sinner. He became
the greatest sinner that ever lived in the world, because all
the sins of those that he represented was laid upon him. And before
God, he was legally constituted, S-I-N. He became as poor as I was by
nature and as poor as you was by nature and he became poor
as our representative and it says that you through his poverty
might be rich now as we stand in the Lord Jesus this morning
we're as rich as he was when he came out from God We're as
rich as He was when the Father spoke from heaven and said, this
is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. We stand with garments
of salvation on, we stand in beauty, not our own, but in beauty,
the beauty and comeliness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're
rich as we stand in Him. We're rich with everything that
God demands of a man in order that that man might stand accepted
before him and that a man might stand in his presence and that
a man might live in his presence for all eternity and be housed
in heaven forever and ever. We're rich as we stand in the
Lord Jesus. Now, the Lord Jesus then is the
example. he is the example and therefore
Paul says and herein I give my advice for this is expedient
for you who have begun before you started collecting this money
not only to do but also to be forward a year ago saying that
you were going to pick up this collection you were going to
contribute you were going to as it were to give to these poor
saints and relieve them Now therefore, in verse 11, perform the doing
of it, that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance
also out of that which ye have. For, he says, if there be first
a willing mind, It is accepted according to that a man hath,
and not according to that he hath not." In other words, if
you have, get busy and do what you said you were going to do.
Perform that out of what you have. You perform that which
you had a readiness to do a year ago. Now then, the Apostle Paul
had only hoped that these Macedonians I want to get to my subject here
and try if I can to be of some help to you this morning in these
things. Paul had only hoped that they
would give just a little bit for they were not rich people
as we have come to understand from our reading here this morning
and a little would show their generosity but they went far
beyond anything that the apostle had expected and so there's no
there's no wonder that Paul was quite taken up with these churches
and there's no wonder that he was moved to use them as an example
to the Corinthian church because they went beyond all that he
had expected of them. And a little from them would
have been more than a much larger sum from a richer people. And
now that's brought out. Our gifts are not to be measured,
you know, by the amount we give. but they're to be measured by
the amount that is left over, as it were, or kept in our own
hand after we make our gift. Now the churches of Macedonia,
they gave, it is said here, beyond their power. It says that they,
for to their power I bear record. He said, I know about their circumstances,
and beyond their power they were willing of themselves. They were
willing beyond their ability. Now, the two mites of the widow
in Christ's eyes was worth more than all the other money that
was cast into the treasury for she of her wont did cast in all
that she had the scripture says even all of her living and so
we see that the size of the gift is not what he's talking about
but he's talking about the sacrificial part of it the liberality part
of it a man giving willingly even sometimes until it hurts
Might I just pause here to say that no child of God can serve
Jesus Christ without sacrifice. No man, I guarantee it. No man
has ever served God truly without sacrifice. It'll cost you something
to serve the God that sent His Son to lay down His life on our
behalf. Now I'm going to talk to you
about the best donation that a man can make this morning,
but you can't serve God without sacrifice. It's going to cost
you something to serve the Lord. Now, they gave it willingly.
They were willing of themselves. They needed no pressing or urging.
Paul did not have to wheedle the money out of them. I'm talking
about the churches of Macedonia. Let there be no necessity this
morning laid upon you except the compulsion of love, remembering
that God loves a cheerful, giver. God loves somebody who can give
cheerfully and give willingly and give out of a hilarious spirit. But these Macedonians gave more
than money. They gave more than money and
that's what verse 5 tells us. It says they gave themselves. First it says they gave themselves. Now Paul writes this to us, and
I believe that this was the best donation they could make. It
was even better than the two mites that the widow cast in
to the offering. They gave themselves. Now she gave her living, but
they gave their life. They gave their very being. They
became committed unto the cause of God without reserve. And they did not stop there.
They gave themselves, the Bible says here, not only to the Lord,
but they gave themselves unto us, Paul said, unto the church
by the will of God. By the will of God. So we see
that this is the best donation. This is the will of God that
goes who yield up themselves unto Him, having in view the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, His life laid down on our behalf,
that they not only give themselves to the Lord, but they join those
that are already His, that they join them, that they become members
of the church, that they follow those who preach to them, those
that they know follow Christ, that they follow them, they imitate
them. Well, in speaking of this, there's
a couple of things that I'd like to say. Number one, I'd like
to say that these people are examples. I think they're examples
in several particulars. Then I would like to say to you
this morning follow their example follow their example well Somebody
said that an ounce of example is worth a pound of precept and
I suppose it is and if that be the case Then let us study the
conduct of these early Christians and do it very carefully So that
we might be able to profit from this ounce of example that we
have here in this text. First of all, I believe they're
examples because they followed the right order. they followed
the right order. This is so very, very important.
Now you young people here, I want you to listen to me. I want you
to listen to me very carefully because you may never again,
as long as you live, hear anybody get up in front of you and talk
to you like I will talk to you this morning. I want you to listen
to what I'm saying to you and pay attention very carefully
to what we're trying to tell you from the Word of God. I'm
talking about the best donation that an individual living in
a body in this world can make unto their God. The very best
donation. And I'm telling you these people
were an example when they gave themselves first to the Lord
because they had the order in this thing right. They first
gave themselves to the Lord. Now it spoils even good things
when you reverse the right order in which they should be done
and as you probably heard somebody say somebody put the cart before
the horse. Well it spoils things when you
put things in the wrong order. There was a mother one time who
told her daughter said you go into such and such a room in
the house and I want you to sweep that room and dust that room. That's what I want you to do.
Well the girl went into the room and she dusted the room and then
she swept it. Now you say, well what's wrong
with that? Well anybody here that knows anything at all about
sweeping and dusting knows that she might just as well not have
done anything if she was going to dust first and then sweep
second. What I'm talking about is the
right order of doing things. She did not obey the orders of
her mother. Her mother said, you sweep the
room and you dust the room. She might as well have left the
job undone because what she did, the order in which she did it,
ruined the job. When the Lord tells you to believe
on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and be baptized then that is
the order, and if you're baptized thinking, well down the road
somewhere I can believe, between here and the grave, I can believe,
that is not the right order. You must believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ first, that's the order, and then be baptized and
come to the Lord's table. Now, baptism will not save you. And if you think it will, then
you've got things in the wrong order. These people first gave
themselves unto the Lord. Do what Christ tells you, and
do it as Christ tells you. Believe on the Lord Jesus and
then be baptized. Put first things first. They
gave themselves to the Lord. Heal yourself unto Him. Trust
Christ. This is the first thing and everything
else is a poor second in comparison with that. You give yourself
first. unto the Lord, and don't be concerned
about what else you can give. Right now, you give yourself
unto the Lord. Have you given yourself to the
Lord? Have you done that? Now, beloved,
listen to me. If I was chosen of God, there
must come a time when I will choose Christ. If God Almighty
in eternal election set His love and affection upon me, wrote
my name down in the book of life from the foundation of the world,
and if the ink has been dry on that book since the foundation
of the world, there must come a time when I will choose and
when I will give myself to the Lord. And I ask you this morning,
in all soberness, with Judgment Day honesty, have you given yourself
to the Lord? You say, Preacher, how does an
individual do that? Well, the way they do that is
they just say, Lord Jesus, take my life. I give it to you. Come
and live in my soul. I give you my life. I give it
to you. I give it to you first. Now then,
can you truly say, I am my Lord's and He is mine? Has by the grace
of God, have you made sure of that? That you belong to the
Lord? That you've given yourself up
to Him? By the grace of God, have you
made sure of that? That you belong to the Lord?
That you've given yourself up to Him? Have you ever went to
prayer and said, Lord Jesus, I give myself to You? You gave
Yourself, I believe, for me, and I give myself to You. Have you ever done that? Well,
especially I say to you that are young people starting out
in life, let this be your prime concern. I must give myself to
the Lord. I must give myself unto the Lord
who loved me and gave himself for me. I must give myself to
Him. And the poet said, stand still,
as it were, and consider the matter. Now unreservedly yield
yourself to him who died for sinners. Here's what the poet
said. Now that my journey's just begun, my course so little trod,
I'll stay before I further run and give myself to God. Before I go any further, I'll
be as I've just begun and not went very far on the tracking
on the road, I'll just pause and give myself to God before
I go any further. Just give myself to the Lord.
And the best thing that you could do this morning if you believe
that Christ died for sinners, if you believe it in your heart,
if you believe it in your heart, is to right now give yourself
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Give your heart to the Lord Jesus. Now if the first does not come
first, the second is good for nothing. What good would it do
for you to give yourself to this church if you had not first give
yourself to the Lord? What good would it do? Would
it do any good for me to baptize you, or listen, baptize an unbeliever
while we know it's being done every day in the Camelite churches?
We know it's being done whenever those Presbyterians and others
that In the Methodist Church, I believe in sprinkling and baptizing
babies. It's being done all the time.
But my friend, baptizing an unbeliever will not help the unbeliever.
Baptism will not put you into favor with God. Baptism is a
picture of what does save the sinner. But only as a man or
a woman comes to Christ in their heart and believes on Him and
trusts Him, giving their heart, giving themselves over to the
Lord, only then is baptism proper and only then ought you to be
baptized. and then take the Lord's Supper?
An unbeliever take the Lord's Supper? I'm telling you that
the first, if it does not come first, the second is good for
nothing! And I'm telling you that is no
need for you to take the Lord's Supper. Fact is, let me remind
you of this. that those who take the Lord's
Supper, not discerning the Lord's body. The unbelievers that take
the Lord's Supper, they eat and drink damnation to their own
souls, not discerning the Lord's body. Now listen to me, examine
yourself. Do you know why Jesus came down
from heaven? Do you know why he came into
this world? Do you know why? My friend, He came into this
world to represent His people. He came down here to live for
them vicariously in His body. He came down here to provide
a righteousness for them, to bring in an everlasting righteousness
that God would accept on the behalf of His people. And He
came down here to give up His life in the flesh, dying on the
cross, in order that your sin debt be paid in full. in order
that divine justice would be satisfied and that God would
not hold you accountable for any of your sin. Jesus came to
die to save us. Do you understand that? Now my
friend, you're not to take the Lord's Supper until you are able
to understand that. That this is the reason why God
sent His Son. He came to provide all that was
demanded of us and to meet the demands of divine justice on
our behalf, to satisfy God on our behalf. We do not want to
baptize an unbeliever. You remember in the book of Acts,
the question is asked, what hinders me from being baptized? and uh... the apostle said if thou believest
with all thine heart thou mayest if you believe with all of your
heart if you've given yourself to the Lord if you've first given
yourself and your life over to the Lord now these Macedonians
would never have thought of giving themselves to the church if they
had not first given themselves to the Lord. Let me explain that.
They would have never, never said to the Apostle Paul, we
give ourselves to you, unless they had first said to the Lord
Jesus, we give ourselves to you. And the reason is this, because
to join a church in that early day, to join a church in the
first century was to endure shame. It was to endure persecution.
It was frequently to suffer death itself. because you had joined
uh... church and when it got out on
you that you were a member of one of the lord's churches that
you were a member of this despised band of worshipers of a resurrected
jesus uh... who taught things contrary to
the law of moses as the as the uh... pharisees would say uh... when it comes when it comes out
and gets out on you that you're a member of one of the Lord's
churches, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. And so I know
these people would not just hastily do this. Now let me say this
too, further, that I believe in the early day, in this early
day, that these Macedonians probably had to sneak out at night. and
go to church. They couldn't get out at 10.30
on Sunday morning or 9.30 on Sunday morning and start out
for church. They had to sneak out at night and visit somewhere
or meet in a cave or an old building somewhere, underground sometimes,
in order to meet. Now, I'm just trying to impress
this upon you. I know the reason they did the
second was because they had done the first. And this is the right
order. And we must keep this in mind. Well, men did not care to join
a church in those days unless the first, unless they first
gave themselves to the Lord. Now, the persecution of the early
church, somebody has well said, was a wonderful means of keeping
the church pure. Because an unbeliever wouldn't
join. An unbeliever wouldn't. I mean, there was no such thing.
You know, in some communities, it's the right thing to do to
be a member of the church in the community. I mean, it gives
you a better standing. Everybody that is anybody is
a member of the church. And the first church I pastored
in Borrelston, Indiana is a farming community, small town. And about
everybody that was anybody in that town was a member of that
church. well of course before i got out of it i'd miss the
whole bunch up and that we had one fellow that threatened to
he left one morning in song service and threatened to come back with
a shotgun and clean house especially shoot me and i'm telling you
this beloved i'm telling you this that if there was more persecution
like there was in the early church you just wouldn't have every
tom dick and harry saying put my name on the back You wouldn't
have it. You wouldn't have it. But those
who give themselves first to the Lord, they'll say, put my
name down on a book. I'll stand with God's people.
They're my people. I'll join with them. And that's
what Paul says here that these people did. They must love the
Lord and his gospel better than life in that early day. they had to love the Lord and
his gospel better than life itself or they never would have joined
the church and make sure you're on the Lord's side before you
come to join this church before you're baptized and before you
take the Lord's supper and uh... there's a song that we sing every
once in a while just listen to these words tis done the great
transaction's done I am my Lord's and He is mine. He drew me and
I followed on, charmed to confess the voice divine. And if you're
able to say that, then you'll be able to sing the chorus. Happy
day, happy day, because it'll be a happy day when this is settled. I give myself unto the Lord. They gave themselves up wholly
and unreservedly And this proved, they proved by the fact that
their money followed their gift of themselves. They proved that
they were the Lord's when they just said, there ain't nothing
I got that's mine. There ain't nothing I got that
is mine. Anything I got is the Lord's. Anything I got. I give myself. And if a man can give himself,
I don't know why or how that he can ever view anything else
that he has in his possession as not belonging to the Lord.
It was no half-hearted offering of a languid devotion, but a
real and practice-yielding up of every bit of their being to
be entirely and forever the Lord's. That's what it amounted to. And
the poet said, we sing this song also, take my life and let it
be. consecrated Lord to thee take
my silver and my gold not a mite would I withhold take myself
and I will be ever only all for thee so we see that they followed
the right order they did it willingly and they had a sense of obedience
in it in that that what they did they did it because they
found that it was the will of God and Paul said they gave themselves
unto us by the will of God by the will of God they gave themselves
unto us. I believe it's God's will that
every saved person be a member of a local church. And I'm a
Baptist, I couldn't be anything else. I'm an independent Baptist. I believe what the Baptists believe. And while our denomination is
not going to take us anyplace, we don't look for it to take
us anyplace, we believe that those that are saved and those
that have given themselves to the Lord ought to present themselves
for baptism and join the church. Join a Baptist church that believes
the doctrines of grace. And I want to say this to you
this morning. It's the will of God, as far as what I understand
about the Bible, that every Christian join a church, that they do not
put their candle under a bushel, but they set it on a hill where
that all can see it. They need to join themselves
with God's people. So my word is this, as I close
out this message, and we're going to finish it off here, let us
follow their example. And listen to these words, Savior,
thy dying love thou gavest me, nor should I withhold my Lord
from thee. In love my soul would bow, my
heart fulfill its vow, some offering bring thee now something for
thee. I'll give my life to you and
then to the church by the will of God. Oh, I am my Beloved's,
and my Beloved's mine. He brings a poor vile sinner
into his house of wine. I stand upon his merit. I know
no other stand, not even where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's
land. So I say to you this morning,
if you're a believer, having given yourself to the Lord, give
yourself to the church. My soul shall pray for Zion still,
while life or breath remains. There my best friends, my kindred
dwell, there God my Savior reigns. In Zion, in the church. The church
is not an institution for perfect people. It is not an institution
for perfect people. It is the fold for Christ's sheep,
the weakest to the strongest. It is the fold for Christ's sheep. It's the house for Christ's family,
for Christ's people, for His family. And so this morning I
want you to see in this text that these people made the very
best donation. They gave themselves unto the
Lord and then they gave themselves unto the church, unto the apostles
by the will of God and to the cause of God and to the cause
of truth they were used of God may the Lord bless this message
this morning little different possibly than what you would
generally hear from this pulpit but nevertheless I believe a
much-needed message a much-needed message we need to come back
you see to the first order of things those among us and I've
been greatly burdened I counted maybe a dozen or so young ones
that listen, that hear us preach here, and burdened for them,
been praying for them, greatly concerned that God would be pleased
to draw their hearts unto Himself and to save them. And so you
pray for these young ones. Each one of you are being prayed
for. You're being prayed for. And
I believe that this church And the folks here that are converted,
that know the Lord, I believe that your burden ought to be
for these young people that are listening to what's being said
from this pulpit. You pray for them. You ask God
for them. You mention their names before
the throne of grace. You pray for them. by name, asking
God to speak to them and to save them as they listen to the gospel
here in this place. And we trust that they will come
to know the Lord, give themselves unto the Lord. What a glorious
and wonderful thing it would be to see all of these young
people in the faith of the gospel, having given themselves to the
Lord. How it would rescue them from
the impending temptation and trials that face young people
in our day and time. My how overwhelming it is in
this world, and to look at this world and the ways of the world,
the things of this world, and to know in our day and time that
these children going out day after day, day after day, facing
it, We need that they give themselves first to the Lord and then to
the church and may God use them for his glory and his honor.
Mike, could we have a song in closing and we'll be