Would you turn back to 2 Corinthians
8. I've entitled this message, The
Grace of Giving. The Grace of Giving. And I could have just as easily
entitled this message, The Joy of Giving. Because if I'm giving,
there is a joy in it. You know, I'm afraid a lot of
times the attitude that people have toward giving is very much
like paying taxes. When you pay taxes, you know
it's needed. We need schools, we need the infrastructure, the
things that are paid by our taxes, but we don't, I don't know if
anybody's ever got any joy out of paying taxes. Kind of doubt
it, but there is joy in giving, the grace of giving. Paul says to every believer in 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. Now he's saying to every believer,
see that you abound in this grace also. This grace of giving. Let's go on reading in verse
eight. He says, I speak not by commandment. I'm not giving you
a command as to how much to give. but by occasion of the forwardness
of others," talking about the church at Macedonia, and to prove
the sincerity, the genuineness of your love. Now, my giving
proves the genuineness of my love, not to you, but to him. You don't know what I give. I
don't know what you give, but the Lord knows. That's all that
counts. And giving proves the sincerity
of the love of that person that gives. Remember when we give,
we give as unto the Lord. Well, we need to give to support
the missionaries. We need to give to support the
TV and the radio, and we need to give to pay the light bill. No, we give as unto the Lord. Every time we give. Now let's
begin in verse one of 2 Corinthians chapter eight. Moreover, brethren, we do you
to wit, we want you to know of the grace of God bestowed upon
the churches of Macedonia. Now the prelude to giving is
the grace of God. When he's going to talk about
giving, where does he begin? With the grace of God. Now, please listen to this very
carefully. God's grace is saving grace. It's not an offer, it's salvation. When you talk about God's grace,
you must talk about his electing grace. He chose who would be
saved before time began. You leave that out, you don't
have grace, period. When we talk about grace, we
talk about God's justifying grace. By His grace, He has made every
believer not guilty before Him. I stand with a perfect righteousness
because of His justifying grace. That's what God's grace does.
When you talk about God's grace, you've got to talk about His
redeeming grace, His grace that makes the full, complete payment
for sin so that I have no sin. If I'm in Christ, if Christ died
for me, all my sin has been put away and I stand perfect before
God. When you talk about God's grace,
you've got to talk about His life-giving grace, His regenerating
grace, where He gives you new life. You were dead in sins. He birthed you into His kingdom,
and now you live. When you talk about God's grace,
you have to talk about His preserving grace. How would you continue
if He didn't cause you to? You couldn't. You wouldn't. You'd leave. When we talk about
God's grace, we talk about his glorifying grace. How I'm already
glorified in the person of my substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now that's the grace of God. And anything less than that is
not grace. Someone that doesn't believe
what I've just said does not believe in salvation by grace. Someone that doesn't publicly
preach what I've just said does not preach the grace of God. Now, when we talk about giving,
the prelude to giving is grace, the grace of God. Now, when he's talking about
grace, He talks about the grace of God bestowed on the churches
of Macedonia. That's talking about the church
at Philippi and some of those churches that were in Macedonia. And look what he says when he
talks about the grace of God bestowed upon them. He says how that in a great trial
of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty
abounded to the riches of their Liberality. Now they were very
poor and they gave very liberally and very generously. That's what
he says about these people. They were very poor. They didn't
have much, but they gave very liberally and they gave very
generously. I don't have extra money to give.
Neither did they, but they did. Everybody is to give. No matter how poor, no matter
what you have, everybody is to give. All of these people who
were in such a desperate state financially, they were very poor,
yet they gave very generously. I think of the widow giving her
two mites. And the Lord said, she gave more
abundantly than they all. Now verse three, Paul says, for
to their power, I bear record these people who gave so liberally,
and this is the grace of God upon them for to their power,
I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing
with themselves. You know what Paul's saying?
I didn't have to prod them. I didn't have to prod them. They were
willing of themselves, praying us, verse four, praying us with
much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the
fellowship of the ministering of the saints. Now, I think Paul
was hesitant to take such a large amount from such poor people.
He thought this doesn't seem right. This doesn't feel right.
And they begged him to take it. That's how important this was
to them. He was thinking this is too much
from you all. He said, no, we're giving it. Verse five, and this they did,
not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord
and unto us by the will of God. Now, what does love do? That's easy to answer that question.
What does love do? It gives. And what did they do? They gave their own selves to
the Lord. Now, when you give yourself to
the Lord, you know what that means? That means everything you have
is His. You don't really have anything. It's His. It's His. And He's the one responsible
to take care of you. You're His. If a man provides
not for his own, especially they of his own household, denied
the faith, and worse than an infidel. The Lord's not going
to do that. When you give yourself to Him, all you have is His.
And He's the one who takes care of you. Now, this thing of giving
is a love issue, and it's a faith issue. You trust Him to take
care of you. Well, what if I need that for
tomorrow? He'll take care of that. He'll take care of that. What does love do? Love gives.
They gave themselves first to the Lord. Now, like I said, This
is a subject that's very important to every believer. We want to
be, whatever generous is, I want to be a generous person, don't
you? I want that for myself, I want that for you. And they
did, verse five, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves
to the Lord and to us by the will of God, insomuch that we
desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would finish in
you the same grace also. Now, we wanted to see you as
the church that's in Macedonia. Look in verse 10, and we're gonna
come back there in a minute, but look in verse 10. And herein
I give my advice, for this is expedient for you, who have begun
before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago, now
therefore perform the doing of it. That as there was a readiness
to will, so there may be a performance out of also that which you have. He said, don't just be willing
to do this, actually perform it. Now let's go back to verse
seven. Therefore, as you abound, he's
talking to the church at Corinth. Therefore, as you abound in everything
in faith, that's what he says first, faith. Now what is faith? It's such an important question.
Faith has to do with what you believe concerning him. Faith
is not believing you're saved. Faith is believing he's the savior.
Faith is believing He is the Son of God. Faith is believing
because of who He is, He must be successful in whatever He
does. You believe that He's the God-Man, the Creator. You believe
all your salvations in Him. That's what faith is. You abound
in faith. God's given you this gift. Isn't
faith the gift of God's grace? By grace you save through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. You abound in utterance. You're
able to articulate the gospel. That's all that means. You're
able to articulate the gospel. You're able to say that Christ
is all in salvation. And can you tell what that means?
You abound. That's the gift of God's grace,
isn't it? And you abound in knowledge. And this is not just talking
about book knowledge and intellectual knowledge. You have the knowledge
of the Son of God. You know Him. He knows you. You know that He's all in salvation.
You know His righteousness is the only righteousness there
is. You know that salvation is all of grace. That's the gift
of His grace, isn't it? The knowledge you have, the understanding
you have, that's the gift of His grace. And you abound in
diligence or earnestness. You're zealous. You believe this
is the gospel. And in your love to us, see that
you abound in this grace also. This grace of giving. Now this
ought to be and is to every believer something we desire. I want to
abound in generosity, don't you? I want to abound in this grace. He's using the Macedonians as
an example. Now look what he says in verse
eight. I speak not by commandment. You know, that takes the joy
out of giving. You need to give 10%. And if you don't give 10%,
you're in the wrong. That's not what the scripture
teaches. Now let me assure you of that. The Bible does not teach
tithing. In the Old Testament, it was
a tax. It was a tax that you had to pay. And the New Testament
does not teach tithing. He says, I'm not speaking by
commandment. I'm not giving you a rule as
to how much you're to give. I speak not by commandment. Well, how much am I to give?
Well, look in chapter nine. I think this is interesting.
Paul devotes two whole chapters to this subject of giving. In
2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 9. Now look what he says in verse
7. Every man, 2 Corinthians 9 verse
7, here's how much you to give. Every man according as he purposes
in his heart. So let him give. How much? However much you purpose in your
heart. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. Hold your finger
there and look back in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. Verse one, now concerning the
collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches
of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week,
let every one of you lay up in store as God has prospered you. I tell you to give as God has
prospered you. Whatever you purpose in your
heart and as God has prospered you. Now, I'm showing you the
example of the Macedonians And back to 2 Corinthians 8, I speak
not by occasion, but the occasion of the four of us others, talking
about the Macedonians, and to prove the sincerity of your love. Now, if I look at that passage
of scripture and think, well, I need to give more to prove
the sincerity of my love, I've missed the meaning of it. I've
missed the point of it. As far as that goes, that's going
back to law. This is not about me trying to
prove something to myself. As far as that goes, y'all don't
know what I give. I don't know what you give. There's a reason
the preacher doesn't know what anybody gives. I don't want to
know, because I guarantee if I did know, the people that gave
a lot, boy, I'd be nice to them. People that don't give much,
they're jerks. I don't want to be like that,
and that's why it's so important for the preacher to not know
anything about that. I have no idea, and I don't want to have
any idea. This is not about what you see
about me or what I see about you, but about what the Lord
sees. Giving is as unto the Lord. And it shows the genuineness of your
love. Somebody that's not willing to
give, they don't love. That's what he's saying. Verse
nine. For you know, now this is, here's
the motive for giving. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became
poor. But you, through his poverty,
I might be rich. Now let's talk about that verse
some. You know. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And then it talks about His riches.
Oh, how rich the Lord Jesus Christ is. He's the Creator. He's the
Sovereign of the universe. He's the God of glory. Rich in
righteousness. Rich in praise. Rich in possession. He's rich! And yet, for your sakes, speaking
of every believer, everybody for whom he died, all of his
elect. He didn't do this for everybody.
It would be making what he did meaningless to say he became
poor for everybody and they wind up in hell. What good did that
do? It's talking about what he did for those who believed, those
he gave faith to, those he died for, those of the elect. It's
for your sakes, he became poor. Now, there's no way that I could
describe that as it ought to be, but the Son of God was made
to say from Calvary's tree, I am a worm, not even fit to be called
a man. He was forsaken by God. He endured
all the fullness of hell. He was made sin. He was made
poor in righteousness, poor in praise. He was made to have nothing
on Calvary's tree. Why? For your sakes. For your sakes. That you, through
His poverty, might be rich. You're looking at a man, and
this is true of every believer, of untold wealth. I'm complete
in Christ. I have His righteousness. I have
every spiritual blessing. I have all that God requires. In Christ, every believer is
rich. Don't ever forget that. You're
justified before God. You have the promise of His eternal
grace. Every believer through his poverty,
not through anything you did, hidden salvation by works repugnant,
to think that someone would give themselves the credit for it
through his poverty. Through his doing, through his
dying, every believer is rich, infinite wealth in Christ Jesus. Verse 10, and herein I give my advice for
this is expedient for you who have begun before not only to
do, but also to be forward a year ago. Now therefore perform the
doing of it. Don't just be led, perform the
doing. If there was a readiness to will,
you were willing, so there may be also performance out of that
which you have. For if there first be a willing
mind, it is accepted according to that
a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. Now, first, a willing mind, You
know, if you don't want to give, don't give. If it's not a privilege
to give, don't give. You think God wants something,
he'll give unwillingly? No, it's not like he needs anything
we have anyway. This is our privilege. If there'd
be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a
man has and not according to they hath not. Now, if you ever,
if I ever say, you all pledge to give so much so often, leave
here. You ought to get out of here.
I mean, I've gone bad. I mean, in the sense that this
thing, pledging, I'm going to pledge this. You give what you
have, not what you don't have. You don't make some kind of promise.
I'm going to give, no, no, that kind of pledging, that's purely
fleshly and it's wrong. Don't give according to some
kind of, well, I don't have it now, but I'll, no, don't do that. Don't do that. It's accepted
according to what a man has and what he, not according to what
he doesn't have. And then he says in verse 13,
for I mean not that other men be eased and you be burdened,
but by an equality that now at this time, your abundance may
be a supply for their want and that their abundance also may
be a supply for your want, that there may be equality. Now, what
Paul is saying is I'm not suggesting that others be eased and you
be burdened. Everybody is to give. everybody. No exceptions. Give what you can. Don't think, well, so-and-so
has more money. They can take care of it. He can give. No,
you give what you can out of love for Christ. That's the motive
for giving. Not, well, so-and-so, they got
a lot more money. They can take care of it. No,
you give what you can give out of love for Christ. Verse 15, as it's written, He
that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little
had no lack. You don't need to worry about
lack. I'm giving away too much. Now in verses 16 through 24,
he talks about how Titus went with him to deliver this gift.
What he was saying is, is everything's above board. There's nothing
secret, everything's above board. Titus is going, we're gonna make
sure everything is honest. You said, did Paul need to do
that? Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, we give a financial
statement that gives every penny that's spent. Should you do that?
Of course you should. Everything is to be kept above
board. We're not leaving any room for any dishonesty in this
thing. Now let's pick up reading in
chapter 9. For, as touching the ministering
to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you. For I
know the forwardness of your mind, your willingness, for which
I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year
ago, and your zeal provoked very many. Yet if I sent the brethren,
lest our boasting of you should be in vain on this behalf, that
as I said, you may be ready, lest happily, if they of Macedonia
come with me and find you unprepared, we, that we say not ye, should
be ashamed in this same confident boasting. Therefore, I thought
it necessary to exhort the brethren that they go beforehand unto
you to make up beforehand your bounty. Where have you noticed
how that the same might be as a matter of bounty? and not of
covetousness. But this I say, verse six, this
I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully
shall reap also bountifully. Now if a farmer puts a lot of
seed in the ground, what's he gonna do? He's gonna reap bountifully. If he puts just a little bit
of seed in the ground, what's gonna happen? He's gonna reap
sparingly, isn't he? Bountiful giving, sparing giving. Now let me say this. You can't
out give God. You can't put yourself in a position
where I'm suffering because of giving. I heard somebody say
once, well, they give to a fault or they're generous to a fault.
There's no such thing as that. There's no such thing. You can't be generous
to a fault. You sow bountifully, you'll reap
bountiful blessings. You sow sparingly, you will reap
sparing blessings. Now that's what the Bible says.
Let's go on reading. Verse seven, every man according
as he purposes in his heart, so let him give not grudgingly
or of necessity for God loveth a cheerful giver. Someone who
enjoys giving. You enjoy giving people you love,
don't you? You enjoy giving your children,
don't you? You love your children. You get much pleasure out of
giving to your children. God loveth a cheerful giver. Now that's what I want to be,
is a cheerful giver. It's where we get the word hilarious
from. You find it So enjoyable, you laugh in doing it, thankful
for the opportunity. God loveth a cheerful giver. Now, let me make a few statements
regarding giving. First, I want to read scriptures
on this. Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter six. Verse one, take heed that you
do not your alms, your gifts before men to be seen of them. Otherwise you have no reward
of your father, which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou doest thine
alms, don't sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in
the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.
Verily I say unto you, they have their reward, but when you do
your alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.
If thine alms may be in secret, and thy father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly. Now, I'm not giving to try to
impress you if I'm giving a right. Nobody's going to know what I
give. My right hand's not going to know what my left hand's doing.
I'm giving as unto the Lord. He's the one who knows. And I
love that scripture in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 16, but to
do good and communicate, which is give, to do good and to communicate,
forget not for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Now, there we have it. It's the
gift of a child out of love to his father, out of love to his
savior. Don't forget. You know, it's amazing that we
have to be told in the word of God to not forget to do good
and to communicate because we will. We will. We'll forget about
it. We'll get tied up with something else. But the Lord mercifully
says to do good and to give, forget not. With such sacrifices,
God is well pleased. I've already read 1 Corinthians
16, but turn there again. I think this is important for
us to see this and think about this. You know, with regard to
giving, does a believer have to be taught to give or does
it come natural? The answer is yes and yes. Yes,
we have to be taught from the scriptures. And yes, it comes
natural because we love the Lord Jesus Christ. But in 1 Corinthians
16, he says in verse 2, upon the
first day of the week, Let every one of you lay by him in store,
as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I
come. Now, what that means is give regularly the first day
of the week. Well, what if I only get, does
that mean, well, once a month, whatever, what it means is regularly,
regularly. Don't forget, give regularly,
whether once a week Whatever the Lord provides you with an
income regularly, you give regularly. What if, well, I'm not going
to give this month. Well, what if your employer said,
I'm not going to make sure you don't have anything to be paid
this month? You'd get upset with that, wouldn't
you? So it's a regular giving. Every one of you, he says. Upon
the first day of the week, let every one of you, everybody on
the first day of the week, or regularly, give as how? As God
has prospered you. How has God prospered you? Give
as God has prospered you, that there be no gatherings when I
come. And I've already read that passage
of scripture, but let me remind you of it. God loveth a cheerful
giver, What a privilege it is. What a privilege it is. What
a grace it is. A gift from God for us to be
allowed to give for the promotion of his gospel, for the spread
of his gospel. What a blessed privilege that
is. No wonder we can do so with a
cheerful heart. God loves a cheerful giver. How
much do I give? You know, I'm not going to say
however much you purpose. I'm not going to say anything else.
However much you purpose, however God has prospered you. And I
love what the writer of the Acts said about the every man according
to his ability, determined to send relief to Jerusalem. You give according to your ability.
And I think of this too. This is an important thing to
bring out concerning giving. Arunah, this is in 2 Samuel chapter
24, David knows he needs to offer sacrifice. And Arunah says, I'm
gonna provide you the oxen, and I'm gonna provide you the wood,
and I'm gonna give it to you for free, so you can offer sacrifice
to the Lord. You know what David said? No. I'm going to pay full price because
I'm not going to offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing. Now, if I just give the leftovers,
I'll wait till the bills are paid, my entertainment's taken
care of, and now I see what's left and then that's not giving. That's not giving. That's offering
to the Lord that which costs you nothing. I don't want to
do that. You know, the Lord said delay
not to give your firstfruits. You know what that means? Firstfruits,
you gave the Lord what came first and then he blesses the rest.
You know, in this thing of giving, That is to be the first thing
I consider with regard to the money the Lord gives me. What
am I going to give? Not wait and see what I got left
over after all the bills were paid and the entertainment's
taken care of and see what's left. No, you give first. That's giving of the first fruits. And so, bountifully, not sparingly,
be generous in your time and your attention and your money.
and you'll reap bountifully. Listen to this scripture from
Proverbs 3 9-10. Honor the Lord with thy substance,
and with the firstfruits of thine increase. So shall thy barns
be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with
new wine. Now would you turn with me to
Mark 12. Verse 41. Mark chapter 12, verse 41. And
Jesus said over against the treasury and beheld how the people cast
money into the treasury and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor
widow, and she threw in two mites. Now, we don't pass a plate. I don't feel comfortable with
that. People have asked me before, well, where's the offering? Well,
there's a box. We don't pass a plate. But let's
say one time that box was opened and all there was was two cents
in it. What good could that do? To pay
the bills. What good could that do? And
what does the Lord say of that two cents though? What does the
Lord say? Now he's the one who knows. He
knows, he saw all these people casting in out of their abundance. But what did this woman cast
in? Two bites, couldn't pay the bills, But here's the point,
it was all she had. It was all she had. And what did the Lord say of
that two bites? Verse 43, and he called unto
him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto
you that this poor widow hath cast more in than all they which
have cast into the treasury, for all they did cast in of their
abundance, But she of her want did cast in all that she had,
even all her living. She was at that point totally
dependent upon the Lord to take care of her for everything, wasn't
she? Turn to Mark chapter 14, verse three. And being in Bethany,
In the house of Simon the leper, as he said at Meath, there came
a woman having an alabaster box of spikenard, very precious. And she break the box and poured
it on his head. And there were some that had an indignation.
within themselves and said, why was this waste of ointment made?
For it might have been sold for more than 300 pence, that's a
year's wages, and have given to the poor. And they murmured
against her. And Jesus said, let her alone. Why trouble ye her? She hath
wrought a good work on me. Why did she break that alabaster
box of ointment? The Lord, the Lord, she hath brought a
good work on me. For you have the poor with you
always, and whensoever you will, you could do them good. But me,
you have not always. She hath done what she could. She is come beforehand to anoint
my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever
this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this
also that she hath done shall be spoken of a memorial to her. One last thought. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7. Who makes you to differ from
another? And what do you have that you
did not receive? And who made you to differ? Right
now, you want to hear the gospel. Somebody else doesn't. Who made
you to differ? Is this because you're better
than that other person? Right now, you're different. You trust
Christ only. That other person doesn't. Who
made you to differ? You have faith. You have repentance. You have love to Christ. Where'd
that come from? Did it come out of your heart
or is it the gift of God's grace? Who makes you to differ from
another? And what do you have that you
didn't receive? God the Father made you to differ
in eternal election when he chose you to be saved before time began.
Amen to that. I know that's the reason. God
the Son made you differ when he took your sins upon himself
and put them away. God the Holy Spirit made you
to differ when he gave you life. He gave you hearing ears. He
gave you a heart to believe and receive. Now, what do you have
that you didn't receive? Nothing. You know what the Lord
said to his disciples? Freely you've received. freely
give. And I love these words of our
Lord. It is more blessed to give than
to receive. Oh, I want to be a giver. Don't
you? There's so many takers. Preachers
are about the worst. I can't stand with a preacher
with his hand out. But may the Lord enable us truly
to be cheerful givers. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
gift of your grace. How we thank you that though
he was rich, our Redeemer became poor, that we through his poverty
might be rich. Lord, enable us to enter into
this thing of being a giver and not a taker. And Lord, we know
that in salvation, you do all the giving and all we do is take. And we thank you for the gift
of your grace. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.