January 23, 2022 - Sunday Service Live Stream

Today these were written long ago and we are those who are singing their praise and yet. Generations yet to be born to us children to be born in your family They too will sing the praises of our God. Incredible song to consider brother.

Please come and lead us in the reading of Isaiah 63. Who is this who comes from Edom with dyed garments from Basra?

This one who's glorious in his apparel traveling in the greatness of his strength. I who speak in righteousness mighty to save. Why is your apparel red and your garments like one who treads in the winepress?

I've trodden the winepress alone and from the people's no one was with me for I've trodden them in my anger and trampled them in my fury. Their blood is sprinkled upon my garments and I've stained all my robes.

For the day of vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed has come. I Looked, but there was none to help and I wondered that there was no one to uphold. Therefore my own arm brought salvation for me in My own fury it sustained me.

I've trodden down the people's in my anger made them drunk in my fury and brought down their strength to the earth. I will mention the loving-kindness of the Lord and the praises of the Lord. According to all that the Lord has bestowed on us and the great goodness toward the house of Israel.

Which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. For he said Surely they are my people children who will not lie. So he became their Savior and All their affliction.

He was afflicted and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity bore them and carried them all the days of all but they rebelled and Grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned himself against them as an enemy and he fought against them.

Then he remembered the days of old Moses and his people saying where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who put his Holy Spirit within them who led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm?

Dividing the water before them to make for himself an everlasting name. Who led them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness that they might not stumble as A beast goes down into the valley and the Spirit of the Lord causes him to rest.

So you lead your people to make yourself a glorious name. Look down from heaven and see your habitation holy and glorious. Where your zeal and your strength the yearning of your heart and your mercies towards me.

Are they restrained? Doubtless you are our father though Abraham was ignorant of us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You oh Lord are our father. I redeemed from everlasting is your name. Oh Lord, why have you made us straight from your ways and hardened our heart from your fear?

Return for your servants sake. The tribes of your inheritance your holy people have possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary. We have become like those of old over whom you never ruled those who were never called by your name.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Let us now confess our faith by singing the Apostles Creed. We are singing holy, holy, holy and the song is very familiar to us but I would like you to.

Apprehend. Inspire you.

Don't just sing along see the Lord.

Our.

Father which art in heaven. Give us this and lead us not but deliver us pray that we may glorify God and all that we do as we live and work in the Creation that displays his power and be pleased to dispose all things to his.

Pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed and that the kingdom of grace.

Advanced. Ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it and the kingdom of glory hastened.

You have sent your blessed son Jesus Christ to crush the head of the servant. The st. Paul said Thank you so much that you by your spirit word of God to Put Satan to death and in every area of life as Christ's dominion Spreads all over by loving our wives and husbands our children by working well By worshiping you who's us your creatures to accomplish this for Christ's sake.

Pray that God for Christ's sake would freely pardon all our sins. And we are encouraged to ask this because by his grace we are able from the heart to forgive others.

Pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

Our father taking encouragement and prayer from you alone in our prayers We praise you ascribing kingdom power and glory to you and to testify of our desire and assurance. To be heard we say together.

Amen.

Please take up the bulletin and find psalm 103. It is the January psalm of the month. We have two more occasions To sing it together and we all know it pretty well now. So let us sing it heartily together.

Let's begin reading in.

Verse 8. And this is God's holy and infallible Second Corinthians 8. I speak not by Commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ That though he was rich yet for your sakes.

He became poor That through his poverty might become rich. And in this I give advice It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and we're desiring to do a year ago. But now you also must complete the doing of it That as there was a readiness to desire it.

So there also may be a completion out of what you have. For if there is first a willing mind it is accepted according to what one has And not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened but by an equality.

That now at this time your abundance may supply their lack. That their abundance also may supply your lack that there may be equality as it is written he who gathered much had nothing left over and He who gathered little had no lack.

But thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus free not only accepted the exhortation, but Becoming more diligent. He went to you of his own accord. And we have sent with him the brother whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches and not only that but was also Chosen by the churches to travel with us With this gift, which is administered by us to the glory of the Lord himself and to show your ready mind.

Avoiding this that anyone should blame us in this lavish gift, which is administered by us providing honorable things Not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men. We have sent with them our brother whom we have often proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent Because of the great confidence which we have in you if anyone inquires about Titus He is my partner and fellow worker concerning you.

Or if our brethren are inquired about they are messengers of the churches the glory of Christ. Therefore show to them and before the churches the proof of your love and of our boasting on your behalf.

Please pray with me. Oh Holy Spirit. We pray that you would take your holy word And that you would set it ablaze in our hearts. That we might see again something of the glory of Christ. Something of the love that we are to have and to share with the churches and with the brethren.

And I pray O Lord that our hearts would be tuned not only to sing thy praise and grace But to obey you to serve you to minister in your name. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus, please be seated.

We have been talking about Paul's admonition to the Corinthian brethren. About providing an offering taking up a gift for the church in Judea, which is suffering under a famine as you remember the Macedonian churches were held up as an example that in the great trial of affliction and the abundance of their joy and in the midst of their deep poverty they Abounded in the riches of their liberality and they gave even Beyond their ability.

So I was thinking about the message for today. I thought this is one of the texts that you come across in your Bible reading plan and You go over it really quickly. We've been talking about we're going to talk about for a couple more weeks.

It's been a couple weeks and be a couple weeks more into chapter 9 About this taking up of this offering to the Saints at Macedonia and it made me think that we've take some Displeasure in Ordinary verses we say well, this isn't really as exciting as maybe 2nd Corinthians 5 is.

I want to remind you as I say Every Sunday, this is God's holy and infallible word. It is of equal value to your favorite Mountaintop verses it's the Word of God. When you're reading in numbers and reading Genealogies, you might say why do I have to read all this?

There's gold in there. That has to be mine you see something of the genealogy of Christ and how God has worked in history through families and and so to today we have a On first glance a text. It doesn't seem as exciting but there is Riches there.

I have four headings. I'd like you to consider when we talk about this section stretching from verse 12 through 24 first. And it's applied first to the Corinthians and now to you. Number one your abundance May supply their lack.

That's taken from our text in verse 14. Your abundance May supply their lack. Second a surprise to me in the text today and the second point which will have some value for us I hope is the plurality of gospel workers.

That's number two the plurality of gospel workers. And you might want to put in parentheses. It's not just Paul the plurality of gospel workers. Number three towards the end of the section verse 22. Paul's great confidence.

Paul's great confidence. And finally the fourth point. Show the proof of your love. The title of the message. Proof of your love. Number four show the proof of your love. I'm gonna go through that one more time really quickly.

I may not systematically do it again during the message number one. Your abundance may supply their lack. Number two the plurality of Gospel workers. It's not just Paul number three Paul's great confidence or show the proof Of your love.

Let's look at our text beginning in verse 12. We've already seen in verse 10 and 11 that the Corinthian Church had a desire to relieve the Judean Saints suffering the famine and We see in our own lives.

We start well with our new plan. Whatever it may be some of you may have done some kind of New Year's resolution and Maybe you've already faltered in that plan for the new year but if you have set out to do something for the Lord, I Urge you today to see it all the way to completion.

If you've set out to raise godly children, you continue to raise those godly children. If you've purposed to be a godly wife every day you wake up again and you resolve again and anew to be a godly wife be a godly husband be a faithful Christian to read your Bible every day to pray to lead your family to give attention to the public worship to be Actively engaged in the life and the body of the body of the church.

There's something about starting a thing. Everybody can start and few finish. Paul is urging the Corinthians to Go it go through all the way to the end to persevere. To the end to take up the offering to take up the collection and to do what they purpose to do back in 1st Corinthians to relieve the burden of the Judean Saints.

Now one of the things that happens here, I think is interesting look again at verse 14. I'll start in verse 13 again for I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened. The Judean Saints are starving in Palestine.

Paul is not saying I want you to have it hard so they could have an easier life. I want you to give and I want you to sacrifice so that your brethren can live. There are real pressing needs in the life of the body.

The Judean Church is suffering. You guys are pretty well off. The Lord has prospered you. Please give and help them in their time of trouble. Now usually a pastor will turn and twist this into a tithing message for the benefit of the church coffers.

But really what's happening here is Paul is trying to get back to the heart of the people who have seen and tasted the grace of God. And they've experienced all of these wonderful blessings of knowing Christ and and being.

Repenting of their sins and growing in godliness has been quite a transformation in the Corinthian Church and their sanctification from first Corinthians to second Corinthians. He wants them to out of a love for God and response to the grace of God.

And this should be a motivation for all of us. Whatever we do if you give money in the church today. Do it because you love Jesus. If you're going to serve the church do it not that you might get some accolades or some honor.

Do it because you love Jesus. If you're gonna be a godly husband, don't love your wife vigorously so that you might hear the praises of people. What a great husband you are. Love her with all of your heart and might for the glory of Christ.

And here in our text Paul is urging the Corinthians to participate in this great work of supplying the need of Judean churches elsewhere and I'm going to quote the places that pops up a few times in Paul's writing.

In this case the Judeans are Lacking. There's a want in them materially we know in in several of the places and nearly all the places that Paul has planted churches and supported the work of church planting there there have been Jews there and the Jews have been an Important resource for the Gentile Christians coming in because they memorized the law of God.

They knew the Old Testament. They said this is how Jesus came to be the Messiah and they give a no doubt a from Genesis to the New Testament an Explanation of the history of Israel and God's dealing with his people.

Filling in the gaps that the Gentiles were just unaware of out of ignorance and not being part of the Covenant strangers to the promises now they've been brought in and the Jews and their kindness and mercy have instructed the Gentiles in the ways of the Lord and given them a fuller or Expression of what it means to be the people of God and this has been very important in the life and health of the churches.

So the Gentiles need to share their material blessings with the Jews who have shared their spiritual blessings and today their abundance Will supply the lack of the Judean Saints. But there may be a time in the future where they may be need to be on the receiving end of some help.

I And I sometimes listen to him because he's completely Different than the kind of preaching that I do. He's a very different style. One of the reasons I listen to him is to get a better sense of my own Deficiencies in the way that I do things and one of the things that was impressive to me about his Message on this section.

I listened to it earlier in the week was this idea that The idea of giving is in God's eyes more about motivations. We like to think about tithes and percentages and things like that. But this is more about a heart for God which leads to a heart for others.

So I would encourage you when you when you're embarking on service would it be giving or serving? Ministering to the Saints that you Recalibrate your thinking and adjust your motivations to do it for the Lord.

And I think if you do it that way you might find greater energy. You might enjoy the work of service more. Sometimes our service is drudgery because our motivations are impure. Now I'd like to turn to the reference that cited in our text turn if you will to Exodus Chapter 16.

This is verse 15. It says he who gathered much had nothing left over and he who gathered little Had no lack turn to Exodus 16. One of the questions that could be asked is how did God Feed 2 million people in the wilderness for 40 years.

How did he do it? Let's begin reading in verse 9 of Exodus 16 Moses spoke to Aaron say to all the congregation of the children of Israel Come near before the Lord for he has heard your complaints. They are hungry.

They are. They haven't had meat. They are struggling. They are waning in their faith. Verse 10 it came to pass as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel That they looked toward the wilderness and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud and The Lord spoke to Moses saying I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel.

Speak to them saying at twilight. You shall eat meat in The morning you shall be filled with bread and you shall know That I am the Lord your God. Now I want to stop here because I think in my immaturity as a young Christian.

I think about.

God.

With a poof in the cloud the quail showing up. As I began to think about it, how many quail are there. That 2 million people. Quail are really really small. So, how does all the cubbies of the quail? How do they arrive on the scene?

It's impressive to think in the ordinary way that God does things. Sometime prior to that. There was a great proliferation of quail in this region. And they have been prepared for the Lord not on this day as a poof in the clouds but God before this had a millions upon millions of quail That he had been cultivating and reserving for this very purpose.

It's amazing to think about isn't it? All these little natural things all intertwined and woven into.

These.

Decorative special revelation acts of God. God has Cubbies of quail to feed his people. It says at twilight. You're gonna eat meat. They haven't had meat. It's gonna be really good really satisfying. But in the morning, they're going to start eating bread and they're gonna eat this bread every day.

Verse 13, so it was that quail came up at evening and covered the camp and In the morning the dew lay all around the camp. And when the day layer of dew lifted there was on the surface of the wilderness.

There was a small round substance As fine as frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it they said to one another what is it? For they did not know what it was and that's where that word manna comes from.

Every day eating something that you don't know what it is. Moses said to him this is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord has commanded. Let every man gather it each according to his own need.

One Omer for each person according to the number of persons. Let every man take for those who are in his tent. The children of Israel did so and gathered some more some less. So when they measured it by Omer's he who gathered much had nothing left over.

And he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one's need and Moses said let no none of you leave any of it till morning. Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning and it bred worms and stank.

Moses was angry with them. So they gathered it every morning. Every man according to his need and when the Sun became hot It melted. I want you to picture the scene children. God himself is feeding his people bread from heaven.

I Hope you see some application to what's going on here on the table and every day. Enterprising Jews gathered up a little bit more because they wanted to save it up and be responsible and have more for tomorrow.

But when they did that it rotted and it began to stink and There were some who were not quite as diligent to to cover and get all this Manna from the ground and when they found themselves Time to eat because of the ample supply given to the body corporately each one had enough to eat.

God has been providing for his people from the very beginning. He who had little had no lack he who had a lot had nothing left over. And I thought about this and I was thinking about us. What we really need and Paul says and Jesus says to us through his servants.

Let us be content with our raiment our covering our house and our daily food. And if you think about that, that's really all that we ever get. Some of you live in nicer houses. But the same thing happens you are under a roof and you're shielded from the elements and you're secure and safe there.

Some of you eat steak and lobster and some of you eat hamburgers. The same provision really covers all of it. Some of you have wonderful chariots that you drive and some of you have donkeys that you ride in on.

But God provided for you in both cases so if you think about it the entirety of our lives is chasing after food and clothing and houses and Sometimes we get distorted and our thinking we think that we need to have these lavish things in order to be happy when the Lord provides For all of us.

It's an amazing thing to consider. We chase after things by degrees. Do you have clothing on? Well, you're not naked and subject to the cold elements in Central, Florida today. Will your belly be filled if you didn't have anything to eat today?

Come to the fellowship meal. Someone has brought an abundant supply or we'll go get more and bring it and you will be able to eat today. Such is the ways of the Lord. Let's go back to our text. In 2nd Corinthians 8.

I think he also here appeals to reason. Very simply you are amply supplied now. You may be the one in Want later. Since you have been people of God in Ascension today have been lavished with such a great provision in Christ.

You have salvation you have been reconciled to God you have peace with God you have been loved by God. It should follow that your love for the brethren Would be demonstrable and your joyful provision for their need.

Gospel grace leads to joyful duties now. The amazing thing to consider that for 40 years God fed his people with his own hand and what we realize is God has been feeding people by his own hand since the garden.

All the provision has been from him. We thought it was because of our ability to cultivate the fields. We thought it was because we were good at animal husbandry that we were shrewd in our investments that we made wise decisions.

But we realized God himself has been providing for his people. It follows then that I should have an open-handedness with my possessions that I might help someone who's truly in need. Investments are good.

The wise man sets up an inheritance for his grandchildren. That's a godly righteous man, but he's also setting up his Grandchildren to provide for the material needs of those who would be in need. The same principle being a wise investor of your money very powerful to think about.

Well the second thing in the interest of time. I've got to consider Titus now when I was thinking about the plurality of gospel workers in this section. It's probably not something that would be highlighted normally in the preaching of the section.

But it was really stood out to me and struck me about this mention of Titus this real Considerable commendation of who Titus was and what he mean and I thought I don't really know much about Titus. Titus in our section is the one whom God put the earnest desire of care for the Corinthians and The brethren generally into his heart.

Titus is a Gentile and he has a great desire and passion to meet the needs of the Judean Saints. Galatians 2 tells us that Titus was a Gentile. Titus 1 says that he was led to Christ by Paul. As he's described as a co-laborer in the gospel.

There's significant evidence to suggest that he accompanied Paul and Barnabas from Antioch to Jerusalem. Do you remember. And I decided this a couple weeks ago? The first collection for the Judean Saints was initiated by the church at Antioch.

Many scholars believe that he was one of the other believers who arrives with Paul at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. And the power of this moment is significant because you remember there's this problem of the Judaizers.

And what about Circumcision and how are the Gentiles brought in. And Paul would bring a living breathing Example a tangible example of a Gentile Christian and his testimony has been oh, yeah, that's Titus.

He brought the offering to relieve the Judean Saints. Later Titus traveled with Paul to Crete. We learn in Titus in the pastoral epistles that Titus was left there to continue and strengthen the work.

He was an important administrator in the church. Titus 1 5 says he was to straighten out what was left unfinished and Takes on a role of a bishop it seems and to appoint elders in every town. This next session was a little bit Exciting for me.

I have family from this part of the world and it was exciting to think about this. The last biblical mention of Titus is found in 2nd Timothy 4 and There he was sent to evangelize Dalmatia. Which later became known as Yugoslavia is now Serbia and Montenegro in the time of Paul.

Titus is blessing the church at Antioch the church at Corinth the church in Jerusalem relieving their need. He goes and strengthens the church in Crete and he evangelizes and takes the gospel to Central Europe and starts a thriving work there that right there in the first century the gospel flourishing in the center of Europe.

What a great God To great work and using ordinary men. It's also important to consider that Titus would have been an effective Apologist of the faith against the Judaizers and that was one of the things you read.

Titus.

You get the sense that Titus is going to be a great defender of the faith. In fact, let's go there really quickly. I'm going to give you a demonstration of the doctrine That Titus was entrusted with and that he effectively ministered to the churches there turn to Titus.

I'm going to skip over the pastoral section that you normally think of with Titus and go down to the end of chapter 2. Titus chapter 2. I want you to have your children your gospel ears. At attention to listen to this doctrine being handed down from Paul to Titus.

Titus 2 11 for the grace of God that brings salvation. Has appeared to all men and it really has power when you think about where Titus has been and where he's going. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.

We should live soberly righteously and godly in the present age. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and Purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works.

Speak these things exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you. Chapter 3 verse 1 remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey to be ready for every good work. To speak evil of no one.

I tell my children don't speak ill of any man. Scripture commands us not to speak ill of anyone. I think we would do well to heed this truth. We like to speak ill of people Christians whom for whom Christ has died and be careful to speak ill of anyone.

To be peaceable to be gentle showing our humility to all men for we ourselves. Were also once foolish. Is that your testimony? Weren't you once foolish? Weren't you once disobedient? Deceived serving your lusts and pleasures living and malice and envy hateful and hating one another.

But when the kindness and the love of God our God and Savior toward man appeared. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done. But according to his mercy he saved us. Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit who we poured out on us abundantly.

Through Jesus Christ our Savior that having been justified by his grace. We should become heirs according to the hope of Eternal life. This is a faithful saying and these things. I want you to affirm constantly.

That those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to them. And avoid foolish disputes genealogies contentions and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and useless.

Rejected divisive man after the first and second admonition knowing that such a person is warped in sinning being Self-condemned when I sent Artemis to you or Tychicus. Be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis.

Artemis and Tychicus are going to take over the work and responsibility in Crete freeing up Titus to go do this in Dalmatia. Since Enos the lawyer and Apollos on their journey with haste that they may lack nothing.

Now listen carefully and let our people also learn to maintain good works to meet urgent needs. That they may not be untruthful. All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in the faith grace be with you all.

Amen. Now what struck me about all this there's some wonderful rich doctrine. Of course, the the pastoral sections very important the older women's section teaching the younger all very important. What struck me about this is Titus cut his teeth in Antioch giving to the Saints at Jerusalem and Judea.

It characterizes his work in ministry throughout the Corinthian letters here. He's important. Delivers the letter of 2nd Corinthians to the Saints there and Paul still urges him. To teach the people to meet urgent needs that they may not be unfruitful.

This was as I mentioned a couple weeks ago. Powerful testimony to the sincerity of the Gentiles conversion to Christ. So I'd like to post something very practical to you. I think if you have any need or any prayer or anything that's going on in your life.

If you need someone to come watch your kids you can go to Bible study. You post that on our website. If you need a new stroller post that on the website. If your if your pantry is empty post it. Give us the privilege of meeting urgent needs.

Let us participate in the work of blessing you and what you're struggling with and maybe. This would be a testimony to the community around us those people really love Jesus. They are ready to meet the urgent needs of people.

I'm not going to send you on a vacation to Hawaii. But if you're hungry, call me and I will bring something over. If your car is broken down, I'll send Jameson and he'll fix it. That's how to fix everything.

I don't know how he does it but I think we need to be more active in our asking and More ready and willing to jump in when people have prayer requests. We shouldn't be saying I'm going to throw up a prayer asking God to relieve you.

We should do that. But then the next question we should say is what can I do? To meet the need of this person who's put out this prayer request. This seems to characterize a very powerful ministry of a very effective co-laborer of Paul Titus and apparently the Lord was pleased to use it Dramatically in the world.

Now, let's go back to our text. We're learning this awkward little section has maybe some gold in there. I think for us to consider that it's maybe deeper than a first glance. There's another man whom we don't know.

Maybe we could speculate maybe today in the back porch. We could try to figure out who this other brother is who is whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches. He was chosen By the Macedonians to deliver the gift to the Judeans.

Administer to them and no doubt report back to them the successful application of that gift to the need in Judea. We get this other very powerful and important consideration all of this has been done.

To bring glory to the Lord himself and this is really what we should be aiming for. You're doing a lot of things for a lot of different reasons. Wipe away all of the reasons and put the glory of Christ first.

And let all those other things take care of themselves. Whether you eat whether you drink when you wake up in the morning when you smoke a cigar when you exercise when you work. Whatever it is, whatever you do do it to the glory of God.

Preeminence of Christ over all things in your life. That's the goal that we're shooting for. There's no stone left unturned. I meet the material needs of the brethren who are in trouble. I Visit the sick.

I go help the widow in the orphan. I go preach the gospel to the lost I I contend for the faith against those who are assaulting the church. We have to be great practitioners of the Christian faith to be effective and part of the church has to do is to equip you and help you to become more effective in your service and I Hope to provide some more information about helping you with that in the coming days.

Well, finally we get to number three. It's Paul's great confidence. These men were trustworthy men. They had only the glory of Christ and the relief of the brethren in mind. Says in verse 22 we have sent with them our brother whom we have often proved diligent and many things.

But now much more diligent because of the great confidence which we have in you. Paul was confident. In the church at Corinth now, if you remember back to our time studying first Corinthians, it's been a while now.

The church was a mess. Had a lot of things wrong. But Paul so trusted and relied upon Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. To work and we have evidence here in 2nd Corinthians that it happened the Corinthian church, which was a disaster tolerating immorality had a Sectarian spirit all these things that were going wrong in Corinth now.

They've grown in righteousness. And now Paul has great confidence and then and I would say to you It really gives me joy to look upon you in the congregation today. I have absolute confidence. That the people here gathered and their families that follow after them will utterly Transform this world for the glory not a sermon accentuator the reality.