WWUTT 1681 Today is the Day of Salvation (2 Corinthians 6:1-10)

Genuine Faith Must Continue to the Day of Christ

There is a need for us to be genuine in our faith. It is not enough that you proclaim faith in Christ at one time or even got yourself baptized. You must continue in this faith until the day of Christ, when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .wutt .com.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Paul’s Appeal Not to Receive God’s Grace in Vain

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 2 Corinthians. This week we're up to chapter 6. If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, I'll begin by reading the first 10 verses. This is out of the Legacy Standard Bible, the Word of the Lord, through the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth.

And working together with him, we also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time.

Behold, now is the day of salvation. Giving no cause for offense in anything, so that the ministry will not be discredited. But in everything, commending ourselves as ministers of God. In much perseverance, in afflictions, in distresses, in hardships, in beatings, in imprisonments, in disturbances, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unhypocritical love, in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report, regarded as deceivers and yet true, as unknown yet well-known, as dying and yet behold we live, as punished and yet not put to death, as sorrowful but always rejoicing, as poor but making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.

So we come back to the start of this chapter here, picking up where we left off last week having finished chapter 5. Paul says, working together with him, with God, we also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

So remember, Paul mentions himself as a minister of reconciliation, this ministry of reconciliation that has been given to us. When we go out with the gospel, we are speaking the word of reconciliation that brings God and man back together again through Christ.

God and man in relationship with one another, fellowshipping with each other because of what Christ has done for us, fulfilling the will of the Father, dying for us. As we read in verse 21, at the conclusion of last week, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

And this is that reconciliation. So God by his mercy has reconciled us to himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ to be received by faith. All who believe in him have been reconciled to God.

And so Paul says, now as ministers of this word, we work together with him and we also plead with you not to receive the grace of God, which is this ministry of reconciliation. Do not receive this grace of God in vain.

In other words, don't let it become nothing. Check yourself and the motives of your own heart. What are the intentions of your heart between you and the Lord? Lest it be found that you didn't truly believe in the very beginning, but you, uh, you had a passing opinion for a time.

Like it sounded like a good idea to you at first, when you heard the gospel at first, you were like, yeah, I believe it. But then if you don't remain in it, if you don't continue in it, then it really wasn't for anything.

Your belief wasn't genuine. It wasn't real. It was just reacting to the emotions or whatever you had at that particular time. When you claimed that you believed, this is what Paul is challenging them on here in the opening verse to this chapter.

Be sure that your belief is genuine unless you believe in vain, you believe for nothing. And then this faith that you claim that you had will come to nothing. There are many, uh, atheists out there, many unbelievers out there that will say that they used to be Christians.

Now we know by what the scripture says that that isn't true. They were never actually Christians at all. They did not have true saving faith. The Holy Spirit had not turned them from their wickedness to the Lord Jesus Christ.

For if we truly believe that we are safe in his hand, we will never be snatched out of his hand. As it says in John chapter 10, but if you do not believe, you get to a point where you're not walking in the faith anymore.

Then you never truly had it to begin with. You're either saved or not. If you're saved, you're saved. If you have eternal life, then it's eternal. How can you lose eternal life? So you either have this in Christ or you do not.

And there are many who will say that they believe that don't truly believe. Jesus talked about this in the parable of the sower, his first parable that you read about in Matthew chapter 13. There are many that will hear the word, but they will be choked out by the cares of the world.

Or they will show an evidence of having believed it for a time, but then they have no root in themselves and it withers and fades away. But then there are some that show that they are genuine in their faith and they produce a harvest, some 30 fold, some 60, some 100, as Jesus goes on to say there.

So you will show the genuineness of your faith through time, or time may reveal that the faith that you claimed that you had wasn't real at all. Now that's difficult for us to understand on the human side of things as far as our own personal experiences go, because of course an atheist is going to say, well, I used to be a Christian, but now I'm not.

They don't truly know the scriptures because they had not been changed by the Holy Spirit to understand them. We discern spiritual things because we have the Holy Spirit within us, but if they did not truly have the Spirit of God, then they couldn't understand spiritual things.

So hence why they think that they were Christians at one point, but now we're not. Now, according to the text, 1 John 2, 19, they went out from us so that it might be plain that they were never really of us.

For if they were of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might be seen that they were not of us. So Paul is challenging the Corinthians here that they would test themselves.

They would examine themselves and know that their faith is genuine, lest they be found to be unqualified. Verse two, for he says, at the acceptable time, I listened to you and on the day of salvation I helped you.

And Paul says, behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now, this is a reference to Isaiah 49 and there in Isaiah 49, verse eight, it says, thus says Yahweh in an acceptable time, I have answered you and in a day of salvation, I have helped you and I will guard you and I will give you for a covenant of the people to establish the land, to make them inherit the desolate inheritance.

Now what's going on here is the Lord is addressing Israel that is rebelled against God and they have been punished by a foreign enemy. But God has promised that he will deliver them, that there will be a day of salvation on which the Lord will lift them up.

So Paul here in second Corinthians six, one and two is saying, this is that day. This is the fulfillment of what was prophesied through Isaiah. And Paul is actually equating his ministry with Isaiah's.

As Isaiah was calling out to Israel, turn from your wicked ways to believe in the Lord, to trust in the Lord and follow him. Paul is doing the same thing. So he's basically showing that his ministry is the same as Isaiah's was.

As Isaiah is calling upon the sinners to repent and return to the Lord, Paul is doing the same. Repent of your sin. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the acceptable time. This is the time that the Lord is now calling you to himself through the proclamation of the gospel.

This is the day of salvation. So turn and believe. Verse three, giving no cause for offense in anything so that the ministry will not be discredited. Now this is actually continuing the thought from verse one.

Verse two is its own independent thought. Well, in the legacy standard Bible, it's between em dashes. You know what an em dash is? It's like the long hyphen. So it's almost as if verse two could have been in parentheses.

So verse three picks up from verse one. The statement in verse two is that Old Testament reference to Isaiah 49, for he says, at the acceptable time, I listened to you. And on the day of salvation, I helped you.

Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. So the urgency that Paul is giving to this appeal that he's making to the Corinthians. But let me go back and read verse one and jump to verse three.

Okay, listen to how it sounds together, removing what's between the em dashes in verse two. So you can hear the complete thought and working together with him. We also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain, giving no cause for offense in anything so that the ministry will not be discredited.

Paul is talking about his own ministry there. So going back to verse one, working together with him, we also plead with you. Verse two is the plea. So the start of verse one, working together with him is a reference to his ministry and his fellow missionary brethren, maybe also the other apostles as well.

So we give no cause for offense in anything so that the ministry will not be discredited. Talking about doing everything into submission unto the Lord, proclaiming his word openly, honestly as being from God, not from their own fanciful ideas and not promoting themselves.

For for Paul had been talking about that previously back in chapter five. We're not preaching ourselves. We're preaching Christ. And so Paul explains, we do this so that there won't be any offense in anything.

The ministry will be pure. The message is pure. Your reception of it is pure. It's not because we bargained with you or offered you something or we're using a crafty and clever language. No, we we were not using crafty schemes when we spoke to you the word, as Paul said earlier in second Corinthians.

But they present the truth with without shame, without decorating it, without sprucing it up, just proclaiming the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that the ministry will not be discredited. What you are receiving when you hear the word that we preach is Christ.

You're not receiving something that we came up with. You're not being manipulated in any way. You are wholly and purely receiving the message of reconciliation. This thing that is reconciling you to God, the proclamation of the gospel.

And so Paul then lays this out. This is what we have now from verses four through ten. And I'm going to go this through this part a little more quickly. But then Paul gives a description of his ministry so that they would see the purity of it and they would know that Paul is not being as the other false teachers are promoting themselves.

That's what they're doing. Promoting their own ideas, trying to make themselves great and using the Corinthians to make themselves something to make themselves big stars or whatever else. OK, Paul is showing that he and his missionary brethren are not doing that.

Those who are genuine in the gospel are not trying to advance themselves, but proclaim Christ. So here, Paul says in verse four, in everything, we're commending ourselves as ministers of God in everything.

We commend ourselves as ministers of God, not preaching ourselves, but Christ. Right. So then everything that follows from here is going to be an example of how we have been genuine in our ministry. The gospel that we proclaim to you has been pure.

It's been purely spoken and it came from pure motives. In much perseverance. In afflictions, in distresses, in hardships. That's what we have right at the very beginning, latter part of verse four. And we're going to hear more about some of those persecutions that Paul endured, some of the things that he went through for the sake of the gospel.

He's going to talk about that later on in chapter 10. So he's persevered. This has not been easy. It's been very, very difficult for him to do what he has done. And yet he's persevered in it. He has suffered greatly for the name of Christ.

And yet he continues on. He has been afflicted for Christ. He's been in distresses and in hardships. He doesn't expound on that because in a lot of ways, the Corinthians already know that he'll expound on it later.

But he also knows that the Corinthians are familiar with the troubles that he's had to face for the sake of the gospel. For he assumes their knowledge of it. When he speaks in chapter one, in the introduction to the letter, he says, we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength when we were in Asia.

And you know about some of the things that we went through when we were in Asia. But this stuff was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. So there you see at the start of the letter, Paul assumes the Corinthians have known these things.

They have known some of the stuff that the real genuine apostles have had to go through for the sake of the gospel. And he describes those a little bit more in verse five in beatings, in imprisonments, in disturbances, in labors, in sleeplessness and in hunger.

It's almost like verse five expounds upon the general examples that Paul gave in verse four. We've persevered. We've been afflicted. We've been in distress. We've been in hardship. Well, in what way? In beatings, we've been beat for the gospel.

We've been thrown in prison. Yet we continue to come to you, right? We're still coming to you, still proclaiming the gospel, still wanting to know how you're doing. In our hearts, we are still affectionate for you.

The stuff we've gone through for the gospel does not make us forget the people that we have labored so hard for. We've been in labor for you. We've been sleepless over you. We've been in hunger for you and all the travels that they do and things like that.

Sometimes it's hard to find a bite to eat. It's not like there's McDonald's on the way. You know, I might go ahead and starve, though, then grab a McDonald's on my missionary journey. Chick-fil-A. There you go.

So there's not a Chick-fil-A that we can stop at and grab a bite to eat. So sometimes they're in hunger as they're going from place to place, proclaiming the gospel and checking on those churches. Verse six, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in unhypocritical love.

Now, that list looks a lot different than verses four and five, doesn't it? This list is definitely more on the positive end. Here is what we have felt toward you. We've been pure. We have pursued holiness.

And that's not just for Paul's benefit and his missionary brethren, but even for those who need a witness to the gospel, to Christian living in the places where they proclaim. So they see the purity. Paul says it's in knowledge that we've proclaimed these things to you.

So they're learning. They are patient. They're kind. They are in the Holy Spirit. Now you see patience and kindness back to back together like that. Where else have we seen that? Yeah, that was the previous letter in canon.

First Corinthians chapter 13. Love is patient. Love is kind. And we see those together right there as well. We are in the Holy Spirit. We're in unhypocritical love. We proclaim love to you and you see us practice it.

We exercise it. Not like the false teachers that come in and say, I love you. Now give me some money. That's not what Paul does. Genuine in his love and in his affections. Verse 7, in the word of truth, in the power of God, not by our word, not by our power, but in Christ, by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, showing that in the goodness that we pursue for Christ, our King, whether we go this way or we go that way, from all sides, we're not acting one way on this hand and acting another way on the other hand.

No, we have the weapons of righteousness in both hands. And we are doing these things to the glory of Christ. Doing what God has said is right and true. And then look at verse 8, by glory and dishonor.

So there are times when the missionaries got to rejoice in what they had accomplished. And there were other times that they were dishonored at the hands of other people that would persecute them and treat them dishonorably.

So sometimes they get to rejoice with the churches over what they've accomplished. And then there's other times they have to go through persecution. So you have by glory and dishonor, by evil reports and good reports.

There are people that say wicked things about us. But then there are others that proclaim good things about what has been accomplished in the declaration of the gospel of Christ, regarded as deceivers and yet true.

So we've seen that before, right? Plenty of people that wanted to discredit Paul and say that he was being deceptive, especially the Judaizers, were saying that of Paul. The Pharisees and the legalists and things like that.

They would proclaim that the gospel Paul preached was heresy. They're lying to you. Don't listen to Paul and those missionary brethren. So they get regarded as deceivers. And yet they're true. Yeah, men will call us deceivers.

But what we proclaim is the truth. And may the Corinthians even be willing to test that according to the scriptures to know that what the apostle said was according to what God's word says. Verse nine, as unknown and yet well known.

I love that phrase as unknown in the sense we'll go into a city. Nobody has any idea who we are and yet well known in the sense that who is it most important that we know knows us. Did I word that right?

It is most important to be known by whom? To be known by God. So we're not well known. We're not famous. Unlike these super apostles that are trying to win you over with their letters of commendation and their flashy appearance and great oration skills.

Yeah, they try to become rock stars in the towns where they come in proclaiming what they do. We're not known. We come into a town proclaiming the gospel. Nobody has any idea who we are. We're unknown.

Yet we're well known in the kingdom of God and among the churches as dying. And yet, behold, we live again. Paul mentioning that back in chapter one, he said, we thought we had received the sentence of death, but this was to make us rely on God.

So we are dying. And yet, behold, we live for he raises the dead. We are as punished and yet not put to death. Persecuted by man, but nobody's been able to knock us down. We've not yet been put to death.

We are continuing to persevere with the declaration of the gospel. As sorrowful, but always rejoicing. I mean, how hard is it to go through all of that and not feel burdened by what you witness, the evil that is going on in the world?

Mourning over how wicked man can be and even turning down the gospel and knowing that if they reject the gospel, they're going to hell. So that causes sorrow. But yet we're always rejoicing because we know of our salvation in Christ and the people that are being brought to Christ.

As poor, but making many rich. Paul doesn't have a home that he goes to. He doesn't make a lot of income from this, yet many are being made rich. How? Because they're being made fellow heirs of the kingdom of God by receiving the message of reconciliation.

And then lastly, as having nothing yet possessing all things. We're willing to give up everything in this world. Nothing truly belongs to me. So that I may possess everything that I am promised in Christ Jesus.

Now, apply that in your own life. These things that we read about here, apply them to your life. Do not desire the things of this world. Desire the things of the kingdom of God. Promise to us through the hearing of the gospel.

And you give up everything, but gain everything. Right? Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word today. And I pray that we know how we may live this out in our lives. That we know we possess all things through Jesus Christ.

Causing us not to despair, but to cling all the more to Christ. To look forward to that day when we will be with you in glory. And hear from our master. Well done, good and faithful servant. For great is your reward in heaven.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Help us to live in your righteousness this day. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.