2 Corinthians, 8:1-6

Okay, if you open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 8, we're going to start chapter 8 today. I want to read down through the first six verses. And I want to ask you a question when I get through reading in terms of, do you see a change here in the first in chapter 8 from chapter 7. So, starting at verse 1, Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power I bear witness, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves beseeching us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped or expected, but first gave themselves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. insomuch that we besought Titus that as he begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. Notice a sharp transition in chapter 8 from chapter 7. The transition is this, that in chapter 7, you saw the heart of Paul. In fact, what's interesting is this, there's probably no book in the New Testament where you see the heart of Paul, just throughout the entire book. And Paul's heart is really whose heart?

Christ's heart. So what you see in Paul, I mean, you're seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking at Paul, you're really looking at Christ. And that's why we title this, His Life and His Ministry. So when you see Paul's ministry, whose ministry are you really seeing? Christ's ministry. So as we go through this, keep that in mind.

So you see, Paul's care and concern for the church He wrote them that first letter and he wrote it in love but he had to admonish those believers in Corinthians because there were problems in the church and he had to correct those problems and he sent them a very strong letter and he was concerned as Bob pointed out last week in terms of their response He was joyful of their response. Why? What message did he get? From whom did he get a message? From Titus. How the church at Corinth responded to that first letter.

And they had a godly sorrow, which led them to repentance. and a turnaround, and they changed their mind concerning their problems at Corinth. Chapter 7 dealt with his ministry in concern for the spiritual needs of all the believers at Corinth. As we get into chapter 8 and chapter 9, we're going to see that it's focused on the physical needs of all the believers at Corinth. And the interesting thing is this.

Chapter 8 and 9 talk about giving, giving, giving, giving, and giving. These are the two most comprehensive chapters in the New Testament on giving. In fact, you could form all of your doctrine or teaching on giving from these two chapters in 2 Corinthians. So that's what we're going to be looking at. So let me ask you a question. When you think of Christian giving, what do you think of? Okay, financial. And then in financial giving, what do you think of? Tithing. Are you looking at the notes, Harry? No. Okay, you think of tithing. What else? Okay, giving of due time.

But if someone talks about Christian giving, the thing that we immediately think of is financial giving. And then when we think of financial giving, we think of tithing. giving out from the excess which God has given us. And once we talk about giving, we think of programs. What program is this church going to come up with now that I'm going to have to give?

I'm going to have to hold on to my pocketbook or wallet or whatever. However, as we go through this, We're going to find that some very interesting things about giving. All right. Looking at verse 1. Verse 1, which says, Now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia. Now, my first question is this. As you read through scripture, at least as I read through scripture, I look at a passage of Scripture, or passages of Scripture, and I come up with all these questions.

And my first question in looking at this passage of Scripture is, why was God's grace given to the churches of Macedonia? Wasn't His grace given to the church at Corinth? How about His grace given to Holly Hills Bible Church? So the question is, does God give out or withhold His grace? When you read this first verse, does it appear, in terms of God We wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given to the churches of Macedonia. Does it enter into your mind that maybe God withholds His grace from some churches in other places?

No, He doesn't withhold His grace. Why not? Why doesn't He withhold His grace? Why should He pour out His grace on everyone? Well, He's the God of all grace. That's just part of what He is, His essence. He'd have to deny Himself. These churches belong to Him. Because that's who He is. He can't be anything other. than his essential essence. And his essential essence is love. Out from his love comes grace. And he can't be anything else. So he's always pouring out his love. He's always pouring out his grace. Right? He can't do anything else. And he can never withhold it because Because that's who He is. I'm trying to think of an analogy here and I can't think of one on my feet. So the question is this.

If someone were to ask you, what does God's grace look like? How would you define God's grace? Okay. Undeserved blessings. Okay. And it's motivated by His love. Okay. And it's motivated by His love. Unmerited favor. Okay. Unmerited favor is, you know, the definition that we always think of when we think of grace. What else? Is God's grace finite or infinite? Infinite. And don't you find a loss for words to describe God's grace? I do. How can you describe something in human terms which is infinite?

Now, one of the things that has bothered me over the years is I've heard people say, well, we've sure been blessed this year. We've had this, we've had this, we've had this. And I think, well, when a person that didn't have those things, are they not blessed? So things like material things have been people a lot of times. Yeah. And that's a good point. And that and that's a very good point in in terms of people thinking. that something happened in their life and they were blessed.

So I'll tell you a story about that now. This week I've been dealing with this company who sells Bible programs and I've bought a dozen Bible programs for our Greek class and myself. And the guy I deal with, he always ends the conversation with, Lord bless, God bless you. And so the last time I talked, well next to the last week ago when I talked to him, I said, hey Rick, I want you to look at Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3. And when I talked to you again, that's your homework assignment.

And so So I talked to him this week, and he says, I read Ephesians 1.3, so what's the point? So I said, think about how we end our conversations, and you help me to determine how we should really end our conversations.

And don't our conversations end in, you know, Lord bless you, right? And doesn't Ephesians 1.3 say that God has blessed us with what? All spiritual blessings? Every spiritual blessing? He hasn't left one out. We are blessed.

And so he says, wow. So we sign off and he says, continue in the Lord's blessing. I said, that's it, that's right, yeah. So when we think of God's grace, we think of His unearned, unmerited favor, gifts, blessings, you know, that we just talked about. Here's the one liner which I love, that the grace of God is the passion of God to share all of his goodness with you and me. That he has a passion to share all of his goodness with you and me. And that's 24-7. And he never ever wants to withhold it.

So what's the problem? Where's the problem? Because are we experiencing this? Are we experiencing this 24-7? Are you experiencing this 24-7? Yeah, I mean, there are times in my life, you know, when you say, you know, you say, Lord, what's happening? And you tend to think and feel, this is where feelings come in, that He's withholding something from you. but he's not. So where is the problem then? The problem is right here, right? Here's the problem in terms of walking by faith. Okay, so God... Here's why. I mean, this is 24-7. God desires to form the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in you and in me.

And that's out from His grace and His love. And as Jack said, earlier, that his grace flows out of his love. His love is infinite, his grace is also then infinite. So that's what his grace looks like. As I point out here, there's no question that God's grace was bestowed upon the believers in Macedonia. and if you look at the words, and when it says that God gave His grace, the verb here is derumi, which means to bestow as a gift, and it's a perfect tense, which means it was a completed action when they became believers, completed action in time past, and had abiding results. It never changed. He never ever withdrew His grace. It was always there. It was just a matter of believers walking in it. And how do you walk in God's grace? Okay, glorifying Him by faith. Right? I mean, there is no other way.

So, the question is to withhold His grace from the Corinthian believers. We'll look at, just turn back a couple of chapters to the first chapter in 2 Corinthians chapter 2. It starts off, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy our brother, this is in verse 1. unto the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are all at Achaia. Look at verse 2.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is being just poured out to them and peace. And who is it from? Where is the source? God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So, the question is, how about you and me? Does God bestow or withhold His grace from you and me?

And if we look quickly over at Romans chapter 8, because Sometimes, when we go through some difficult circumstances and trials in our life, we tend to think that God is just not there. And look at Romans 8, verse 30 to 32. Moreover, starting at verse 30, moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified. And Paul says in verse 31, what shall we then say to these things? These things that were just mentioned.

If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but deliver them up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? And that word in terms of freely give, it comes, it's the word grace give. Okay? It's grace give. So does God ever withhold His grace from you and me? No way. He's always grace-giving 24-7. Yeah? I don't really think God can withhold any grace or anything else of His character from believers because we're in Christ and He doesn't withhold anything from His Son. Yeah, absolutely. He never did. Yeah, absolutely. Excellent. And boy, isn't the key then to keep focusing? We're in Christ. We're in Christ. And whatever is Christ is ours.

Right? Incredible thought. Okay. Verse 2. We're going to be coming up on trials here, and I forgot to mention at the beginning of the class that you all know that Jim Poole's parents was in an automobile accident last week, and so Jim and Rachel are back in Virginia with his parents. At any rate, they're out of the hospital and healing. Verse 2.

In a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality." Now, the one thing I just want to emphasize here, this is what the believers in Macedonia were going through. They were going through a great trial of affliction. They were going through a deep poverty.

What does that look like? Well, as you look at the great tribal collection, great, the word great follows, can mean many in number or something that is very deep or the degree. It could be talking about number or degree. I think as you read through Acts, as you read through Philippians, that the great was many in number and also the degree, it was a severe degree of affliction that these believers were going through. And if you can just get into the, put yourself into the mindset of these believers in Macedonia and think of, just think of All the trials that you have gone through in your life over time, put them all together and have them come together. Many trials, and the degree of these were very deep.

And the trial here, it's an interesting word, is DocMA. which means a test or proof. We've looked at the word trial, flipsis sometimes, which means a pressure, which is the next word, is this word of affliction. But this is a test. This is a proving. What does God test or prove? What's the proving that goes on in our life? What's being proved? Our faith. Our faith is tested or proved.

And they were going through this great testing by afflictions. And they had many afflictions. many pressures and they were being burdened down. So not only that, but there was this deep poverty. And when we talk about deep poverty, in terms of looking at the words, the word deep, bathas, is profound, intense, extreme. They were living, as I point out here, hand to mouth. And the majority, in fact, more than the majority, about 75% of the believers in Macedonia were in this deep poverty, where they would work all day just to maybe make enough money to buy one meal.

If you can think, I mean, we think of, okay, let's see, what do I want to buy next? Let's see, now computers are out. Now they have four gigabyte speeds. Just think about the contrast in our lives versus their life. It's incredible. So that we're in this deep poverty, most of them. The thing is this, the incredible thing is this, look at their response. Great Trial of Affliction, what was their response? Okay, in terms of their affliction, Okay, it was the abundance of their joy. And what was their response to their deep poverty? Yeah, they gave. They were giving. They were a giving people. They abounded in generosity.

Isn't that incredible? I mean, it reminds me of a story that Steve Dupuis told me on one of his visits when he was in Belarus over in, then it was the Sino, no it wasn't the Sino-Soviet Republic, but he was in Belarus. And he was ministering in Belarus. And what the believers there would do is would invite him over for dinner. And they would have just a very beautiful, wonderful dinner.

And Steve said that in order for them to prepare that dinner, to buy the meat and the vegetables and whatever else, and the desserts, etc. It took three to four months of their wages to prepare that one dinner. And they did it, and they did it with joy, with this generosity, because they were so thankful in terms of hearing the Word of God and being taught the Word of God that that was the response. So if it took three, four wages, three, four months wages, it didn't matter. In other words, they didn't even think about that.

They just abounded. And that's the nearest example I can give you with respect to the generosity of believers in Macedonia. So when you read something like that, right? So here's the question you come up with. Hold it. How can that possibly be? I mean, how can somebody abound in joy and generosity under the conditions and circumstances that they were living. How? I thought, as I read this, I thought of one passage of Scripture that I think answers the question. And you don't have to turn there, I'll put it up on the overhead, but that's in Romans Chapter 5, and just look at it for a moment.

It says, therefore being justified by faith. Therefore, and it's a perfect tense, having been justified by faith. In other words, he's talking to these believers in Rome and he's saying that you have been justified by faith. The moment you trusted Christ, you have been And it's abiding, the results are abiding, and you're justified. And it's by faith.

And we have peace with God. And the peace that he's talking about here is this face-to-face peace. There's no more enmity between you and God, now that you've trusted Christ. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom, that is, by the Lord Jesus Christ, we have access, we have this entree, we have this entrance, and it's by faith that we have this entrance, and where is the entrance or entree to? It's into this grace, into God's grace.

So it's through the Lord Jesus Christ, and that he has led us into God's grace. Then it goes on to say, in which we stand, and it's kind of like a military term, histamy, it's when you get entrenched, you know, you get entrenched in a foxhole, you are entrenched, we are entrenched in God's grace.

And look where the rejoicing is, look where the glorying is, where? Where's their hope? The glory of God. This word hope, el piso, means absolute certainty. We have absolute certainty in the glory of God. And the glory of God is what? How would you define the glory of God? to you. It's all who he is. So we have hope, we have absolute certainty in the glory of God.

And look at the next statement. Not only do we have hope or absolute certainty, or do we glory in who God is in this essential essence, not only simply glory, or we rejoice, some translations have, in what? in tribulations. And this word is the word philipsis or afflictions as was just translated over in 2nd Corinthians.

It's this pressure where you feel like you're in a vice and somebody is turning it and the pressure just keeps getting greater and greater. But we glory or rejoice in tribulations also and there's a knowing, there's a knowledge There is a knowledge that comes in terms of knowing Him. The knowing that, what does the tribulations do? What does this pressure, what do the trials in our life do?

They have a purpose. What does it, from the passage of scripture, what does it say? What do they do? Okay, it works patience. And patience is this wonderful word, hupomene, which means to abide under. No matter what the trial is, no matter what the circumstances are, it's an abiding under. It's a resting. It's a resting in the Lord, independent of the circumstances.

So the trials can be many. It could be deep poverty, deep afflictions like these believers were going through, but there's this abiding. And then the patience works something else. The patience works experience. experience can be translated, tried, character. This is the proving or the testing. This is the proving or the testing that these believers in Macedonia were going through. And then this proving or testing comes back to hope, comes back to the absolute certainty in who God is.

And look what the hope does. The hope makes not ashamed, we're not embarrassed about the absolute certainty in terms of what God's doing, who He is, because the love of God is shed abroad. And this word, to be shed abroad, is the word to me, gushed out. The love of God is gushed out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. Can you see this picture in the hearts of the believers in Macedonia? in their trials, in their great trial of affliction, in their deep poverty, that this was their rest. So I've drawn this and presented this before, and it looks like this. In terms of God's purpose in our trials, we start out rejoicing. We're rejoicing in the hope, the absolute certainty.

And by the way, it's not our hope. The hope is not from us. The hope is out from the glory of who Jesus Christ is. the glory of Christ, the absolute certainty of the glory of Christ. That's hope. And it's our hope. And we rejoice in that hope. And we're walking by faith in God's grace. And as we do, here come, and we're rejoicing. And we're rejoicing in that hope.

And here comes the trials. Bam, bam, bam. Whatever they be. kids, financial, spouses, you name it, here comes the trial in your life and in my life. And the thing is this, that this passage doesn't have the believer wavering whatsoever. The believer is walking by faith and focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. and then that trial produces something, and is rejoicing, by the way, in that trial, just like these believers in Macedonia were rejoicing, and that produces or works, has a goal. The word there, to work, means it works towards an intended goal, and that intended goal is patience. And then patience has an intended goal, is tried character.

And this is the document, this is the proving or the testing. And it's the word that's used when you're taking gold ore and you're trying to get the gold out of the ore and you put it to the test. And how do you do that? How do you separate the two? By fire, by heat. And all the impurities boil off, and the only thing that remains, so that's the testing. And all the impurities are boiling, and what you're left with is the pure stuff itself.

So as the Lord takes us through trials in our life, and we're focused on Him, All of the impurities, the old man is set aside. And what comes to the surface is the new man in Christ, this tried character. It's the very character of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is what people see in our lives. When we're going through a trial, and we're walking by faith in that trial, they see Christ. And you may not see Christ in your life at the time, but others do. You may not experience it, I guess is the word I'm looking for, but others will see. And then that works back to hope because you're rejoicing now in the fact that you've trusted the Lord in this trial, and He has proven you, tested you in that trial. And your response is love being poured out from you, and others will see that love. And then it comes back to to hope, to your absolute certainty in who Christ is. This was the life being manifested in these believers in Macedonia.

I'd like to add a verse that I think of so often in my own experience. It's 1 John 4, 18 and it says that perfect love casts out fear. Okay. I've never been in a situation where I didn't have to wonder where my next meal was coming from. And yet sometimes I'm afraid when there's something that maybe I'm called upon to do or there's something I have to say and I'm afraid.

And I realize when this verse comes to mind that that's an indication that there's some aspect of my love for Christ, it isn't perfect yet. I haven't come to understand what you just said, the character of Christ, in regard to that issue, whatever it might be. And maybe that's where they were, their love, because of pressure and affliction, had been tested so quickly, even as young believers, that they were able to be joyful and generous. I could not have done that. when I have been in prison only a very short time. And you know, let me tell you something. You don't know that until the trial comes. You really don't know that until the trial comes.

Do you remember Bob and Nancy Van Sickle used to attend this fellowship? They left here, they went back to Missouri. because things were going to be less expensive to live in Missouri than it was here in Denver. And things did not work out in their lives financially.

And they were telling me one day that they were down to their last potato. They had one potato left. That's all they had. And it was just simple trust and faith. And they said, Lord, thank you for the one potato. And we don't have a clue where our next meal is going to come from. The next morning, there were checks in their mailbox. It's incredible. Of course, they came back here to Denver. But the thing is, here they were in the situation and they trusted the Lord.

So we look at a situation, we think about a situation and we say, well I don't know if I can really, if I would really trust the Lord in that situation. You know, I don't think we'd know until we get there. We have to be there. If I could say one more thing.

When they came back to Denver, They were in bad straits, like you're saying, and they needed a place to stay. And we had a spare room because our son Stephen had died about a month before, or six weeks before. And we had gotten the room cleaned out and they were desperate for somewhere to stay. And so we said, why don't you stay here?

They took us up on it. And at the time we said it, I was afraid of that because I thought, how can I do that? How can I have anybody in here at this time when I'm going through what I'm going through? And we were really tight at the time too because we were self-employed and that was going down. But they came and with their little daughter, she was three years old at the time.

And they had been youth directors here. and worked with the young people here at Holly Hills and knew Stephen very well. And during the, I think it was six weeks that they lived with us, we shared a lot of things about Stephen, about the youth, about the church.

We had a lot of really great fellowship. And it was a wonderful experience for us. I don't know about them, but it was for us. And I think it was helpful at that point for us. It was words for vision, for both, and you didn't even know it, did you? Yeah. Interesting. Okay. You know, here's the question.

You know, think about your own life. Do you glory in your trials, in your tribulations? We talk about the Christian life in terms of this glorying in tribulations, and what about you? What about me? And the most comforting One of the most comforting verses in this was Paul, because when you think of Paul, what do you think of? Is he always glorying in his tribulation and trials? Right? Would you say yes? Would you say that he is the epitome of the Christian life in action, 24-7? Right? Wouldn't you say that?

So, Paul's given this thorn in the side, and it's severe to him. And in his mind, he's saying, you know, this is going to hamper my ministry. whatever that thorn in his side was, whether it was eyesight, his eyes weren't bad, or whatever it was. And in Paul's mind, he said, there's no way that I'm going to be able to minister if I have this thorn in the side.

So what does he do? In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, it says, unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure. And what was his response to that? He besought the Lord three times.

He said, Lord, hold it. You know that this is going to hamper my ministry. And God said, it's okay. Lord, you really don't understand. Right? And the third time, you know, it's, Lord, do I have to come up there and explain this to you? Right? So he besought the Lord three times. And what was God's response? Well, God responded to him, right?

He said, my grace is sufficient for you. Paul, you don't need anything more than my grace. For my strength is made perfect in your weakness. And so here's Paul's response. Most gladly, therefore, I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Isn't that incredible? That independent of the circumstances in life, and whatever circumstances we go through in life, and whether it be great affliction, great trials, or deep poverty, that we can take pleasure we can take pleasure in them, and we can glory in them, because of the power of Christ resting upon us. And so it goes on to say, therefore I take pleasure in my infirmities, reproaches, necessities, and persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then what? and I am strong. So in our weakness. And so Paul glories in his infirmity. He glories in that, and people think he's a fool. He's moronic. How could you possibly glory in your trials that you're going through?

We're going to end here. Any questions? Next week, we're going to look at giving. And if you want to read ahead, that's great. We're going to hopefully get down through verse 9. And read ahead. And if I could say, don't look at your notes. And just read ahead. And try to understand what Christian giving is all about. Because Christian giving is more than financial. It's more than giving financially. So don't look at your notes, look at the passage and see what are the other aspects of giving. Any questions? Comments? I don't know, everybody is so quiet today. Let's close.

Father, again, we are just ever so thankful for your Word. And we know, Father, that in and of ourselves, in distress and trials and financial difficulties, We would never glory in them, but we just thank you, Father, that as we walk by faith and that our hope and our confidence is on who you are. And the fact that you love us and that you have a purpose in every detail in our life, that we can rest and know, Father, that in that you're going to be glorified. And Father, we're ever so thankful for just knowing that. And we just pray, Father, that each and every one here, as they go through the trials that you've bestowed upon them and really appointed them to, for a reason, And the reason is to be ambassadors for you, ambassadors to the people around us, to the people in our sphere of influence, that they might see Christ. Father, how thankful we are for each and every trial. And we give you thanks in Christ's name. Amen.