Good Works Refresh Workers

Please turn your Bible to 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 that can be found on page 1026 if you're using the pew Bible. 2nd Corinthians Chapter 7. So we've been in this series on Motivations for good works and this particular subsection of that series has been on how How good works help your neighbor last week.

We looked at how good works Encourage leaders and now we will be looking at how good work. It's encourage workers How good works refresh workers? The sermon today will simply be on the second half of chapter 7 verse 13.

However.

To prepare for this I would like to read beginning in verse 5 to the end of the chapter. Please stand when you have that for the reading of God's Word for even when we came into Macedonia Our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn fighting without and Fear within but God who comforts the downcast Comforted us by the coming of Titus and not only by his own by his coming But also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you as he told us of your longing your mourning your zeal for me.

So that I rejoice still more and even if I made you grieve with my letter I do not regret it though. I did regret it first seat for I see that That letter grieved you though only for a while as it is.

I rejoice not because you were grieved but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret whereas worldly grief produces death.

For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you. But also what eagerness to clear yourselves what indignation what fear what longing what zeal what punishment at? Every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

So although I wrote to you It was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong nor for the sake of the one who suffered their wrong. But in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God.

Therefore we are comforted. And besides our own comfort we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. For whatever boasts I made to him about you I was not put to shame, but just as everything we said to you was true.

So also our Boasting before Titus has proved true and his affection for you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of you. All how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoice because I have complete confidence in you.

Amen. You may be seated dear Heavenly Father. We thank you for the your word today. We thank you for this passage in 2nd Corinthians 713. We ask that you would open our eyes to understand it more fully.

That you by your spirit would enlighten our minds and lighten our heart that we might know your truth. And we pray that you would stir within us a great zeal for The calling that you have given us In Jesus Christ you have redeemed us as a people for his own possession to be zealous for good works Jesus's name.

Amen. So last week we looked at the needs of workers or excuse me of leaders. Leaders are in a particular role. They need encouragement and Good works are an encouragement to leaders. Well, there are many who are not in particular leaders.

But our workers who are likewise in need of encouragement can be a very discouraging thing working for the Lord. You look around there are many false Believers who are In the church and they do not contribute in any real meaningful way.

And it is very discouraging to workers to see that kind of inactivity and even among true believers often because of immaturity because of Particular spiritual ailments there is a lack of zeal that can be very discouraging.

So I'd like us to consider this passage. And besides our own comfort we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. To understand what it means to have one spirit refreshed and how good works Do refresh the spirit later on in verse 15 It says.

And his affection for you is even greater as he remembers the obedience of you all how you received him with fear and trembling. As we've defined good works, that is simply sincere obedience. How has Titus been refreshed through the sincere obedience of the Corinthians.

So Titus has been sent by Paul to the Corinthians to deliver Multiple messages to them here. He has delivered this letter known as second Corinthians. But he also has delivered another letter to them a letter That's often called the difficult letter or things along those lines where He is communicated with them in relation to a matter of discipline.

Now traditionally is held and I believe it is likely. But this is the same matter of discipline that was in first Corinthians 5 the man who had slept with his father's wife. Now they had Been arrogant about this and had not dealt with this and in first Corinthians Paul had told them they needed to deal with it.

There is the suggestion that if this if this is indeed the same incident of discipline that they had not dealt with it as they ought and so Titus had to come and Encourage them further in that to which they responded With obedience in this matter of discipline and this has been a great Encouragement to Titus.

Paul had boasted about the Corinthians he had told them about how sincere they were and their zeal for the Lord and Has been manifestly true when Titus has come to them now. There are more matters at stake now.

Titus has come again and one of the matters at hand is the matter of the Collection for the poor in Jerusalem. Later on in the next chapters of 2nd Corinthians We see the poor in Jerusalem and that collection being addressed and Paul says some very similar things says in 2nd Corinthians 8 24.

So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men. And he says this in the context of commending Titus to he says in 8 16. But thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you.

So Titus has appeared a second time. He is encouraging them once again to make good on the boast that he has made about the Corinthians. So here you have this notion of the good works the sincere obedience of the Corinthians being an encouragement for For for Titus for other churches for those who would labor for the sake of the gospel.

Particularly for those in Macedonia in verse in chapter 8 verse 1 It talks about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia so before Titus was refreshed and Encouraged and now not only Titus but even the churches in Macedonia as they would give Sincerely to the Lord for the sake of the poor in Jerusalem.

So to begin understanding this notion of Spiritual refreshment of having one spirit refreshed. It's important to know what the spirit is. What is the spirit? Simply put the spirit is the immaterial Constituent part of man the immaterial constituent part of man.

Man is composed of two parts. It's composed of material a material part, right? There are things of me that you can touch my body that is The physical constituent part of man the material constituent part and then there is an immaterial constituent part.

That's known as the spirit that part of me which cannot be touched now the Bible uses several synonyms for this notion of the spirit and you can see that and a lot of. Especially in the poetry where the of the Old Testament where there are many parallels between things.

Where.

The author will use synonyms in order for poetic variation, but he's speaking of the same concept. Consider in Psalm 51 what David says. Psalm 51 10, he says created me a clean heart Oh God and Renew a right spirit within me.

So he says create me a clean heart renew a right spirit. To have one's heart cleaned is to have his spirit renewed. Heart and spirit are used synonymously there. Later on in verse 17 of that same song the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart.

Oh God, you will not despise. Right. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, and then he goes on to describe this so he speaks of God wanting wanting a broken spirit and then he goes on to describe that broken spirit as.

Calling it a broken and contrite heart. So heart is used as a synonym for this notion of the Spirit. Then you may be familiar with the Ezekiel 11 where it says. And I will give them one heart. She's I will give them one heart a new spirit.

I will put within them. So what is it when God is giving this new heart? He's giving a new spirit. These are synonyms for one another. Exodus 35 says. And they came everyone whose heart stirred him and Everyone whose spirit moved him and brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting.

So those whose heart stirred them are those whose spirit stirred them. Okay, so heart and spirit are used as are used as synonyms. There's another word that is a synonym. That is the word soul consider in John and John 12 and 13.

Multiple times Jesus is troubled and on one hand This is called as his spirit being troubled and another time. It's called his soul being troubled. John 12 27 now my soul is troubled. John 13 21. Jesus was troubled in his spirit.

Being troubled in your soul is not a different thing than being troubled in your spirit. Those are one in the same the soul is the spirit. Job 711 says. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

One in the same. Now there are a couple of verses at least there are two Primary verses that would cause people to doubt this whether or not the soul and the spirit are the same thing now. A lot of people have this idea that there are three parts of man.

They're not just two parts his material part and his immaterial part, but there are two immaterial parts, right? There's the spirit and there's also the soul. Now you go and you look at what people have written about this and everyone who thinks the soul and the spirit are different things.

Almost all of them have a different idea of what the soul and the spirit is. This is not a very unified or consolidated view.

But.

But those verses that would cause people especially to think this way are the following Hebrews 412. Which talks about piercing to the division of soul and spirit? So a lot of people look at that and they think oh, this is talking about divining the soul and spirit these are two things that can be divided from one another.

And before that in That phrase he had talked about dividing the joints and marrows. The joints and marrow are different things. Soul and spirit must be different things. Well, if you think a little about what?

The author of Hebrews is saying the difficulty that the Word of God is so Precise that it can divide. Things that would be otherwise undividable. Think about what joints and marrow are. Joints and marrow are actually not difficult to divide from one another.

Joints are outside your bones. Marrow is inside your bones. Okay, there's actually a pretty big Division wall between those two. So in the author of Hebrews talks about the difficulty of dividing joints and marrow.

He's not talking about dividing joints and marrow from each other. He is talking about making sense of them within themselves. You know, what is the what is the joint? You know, it's this massive tissue.

Are there different parts of it? What is the marrow? Are there different parts of it? You know scientists took a long long time to develop the kind of equipment where they could see what a blood cell is understand this substance that just otherwise without very advanced technology cannot be divided.

So when Paul talks about joints in marrow as Two things that are difficult to divide within themselves when he goes on to speak of the soul in the spirit. He's not talking about two things to be divided between each other but using synonyms.

Speaks of the soul speaks of the spirit as being something that you cannot divide without without advanced technology without God himself Piercing into it. You would not be able to divide the soul and understand the soul.

You would not be able to divide your spirit, which is the same. There's another passage that people like to point to to claim that these are three different things. 2nd Corinthians 2 13, excuse me. Those passages Thessalonians 1st Thessalonians 5 23 may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless.

Now it sounds like there's three parts spirit soul in the body. You know Jesus Spoke of obeying God with all your heart your mind soul your strength. And when Jesus says that He's not Identifying the heart as being different from the mind now a lot of times we would emphasize, you know Emotions with the word heart we didn't emphasize intellect with the word mind.

We'd emphasize, you know a zeal or a life with the word soul. We'd emphasize ability with the word strength. But these are not really different different things when it talks about one's heart being troubled.

It's talking about one spirit being troubled if those are. Those are the same things. The soul is being troubled same thing. These are all Different words being thrown together to emphasize. These are these are near synonyms for each other and by near synonyms.

What I mean is they refer to the same thing, but with a different connotation with a different emphasis. Okay, the word spirit and soul they are different words. They do have a different emphasis even if they refer to the same thing the soul Tends to as you look at all the examples of the word soul.

It tends to speak of the constituent and material part of man that part that can't be touched in relation.

To.

Man being created from the earth to his body. As you look at the way the word spirit is used it tends to be used to speak of man and Connection to where he has come from from heaven the Spirit of God having breathed into the body life.

And so The word soul tends to emphasize man's origin from the earth.

Word.

Spirit tends to emphasize his origin from God having breathed into him. Now these. This can be most especially seen one of my favorite Points to share parts of scripture that would show how these words are used differently to describe man and connection to the earth rather man and his connection to heaven is in first Corinthians 15.

In first Corinthians 15. You see the description of the spiritual body in the natural body now in both of these cases. It's actually it's just talking about the physical right? It's not even talking about something that is Immaterial it's talking about the physical body and it's calling it a spiritual body versus a natural body.

Now the word natural is literally the word soulish. The word soulish now, that's not a real English word. But if you were to look at the Greek word, you would see it's using the word soul to describe that body.

So it's comparing a spiritual body a resurrection body that has been That is made more heavenly. Like the heavenly man Jesus Christ. Versus the natural body which is like Adam's body Adam who is from the earth as opposed to Jesus.

Who is from heaven? So one the spiritual body the other is a natural or soulish body. So these words spirit and soul while they refer to the same thing the immaterial constituent part of man. They are referring to it with different connotations.

One the earth one with heaven so. All this simply explain where that. What this term means spirit is the immaterial? Constituent part of man. So to understand what? Refreshing the spirit is you can look at the various passages that talk about this spirit being weary for example.

Hebrews.

12 3 says consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself. So that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted now. That word for faint-hearted is literally faint-souled. So you might not be fainting in your soul.

So these words I'll use the synonyms you can go and you can look at them and you can say what does it mean? To be refreshed in spirit. Well, it'd be the opposite of being faint in spirit. And what does it mean to be faint in spirit?

Well, the same thing is fainting in the soul or fainting in the heart. So here when it speaks of faint-hearted literally fainting in the soul. It's talking about kind of discouragement where you would not continue pursuing what God has called you to.

Jesus though his body was Distressed he did not grow faint in his soul as he continued the work that God had called him to. In 2nd Corinthians 2 13 my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there.

See.

Paul speaking of his spirit not having rest, you know not being Refreshed he's discouraged because he cannot find Titus. And so what is what is this? Faintness of spirit or this weariness of spirit. The opposite of refreshment the thing that would require refreshment it is simply a loss or a lack of confidence in the value of faithfulness a.

Lack.

And the confidence of the value of faithfulness, you know. Think about the kind of thoughts that one has when they're spiritually discouraged, you know, they think why bother no one else is doing this what effect is this even going to have or sometimes it can feel like an implicit rebuke if You are working hard for the Lord and no one else's You know, why wouldn't they if working hard for the Lord is obviously a good thing Why wouldn't other people be doing it?

Maybe there's something they know that you don't know. Maybe you're a fool for Giving so much of yourself to the Lord. It's very Real aspect to this kind of discouragement and I'm sure all of you can think about Situations just in the natural world where you've come across this kind of discouragement because other people are not working.

No doubt. You've been on some kind of project where your project mates whether in school whether in the workforce or anywhere just aren't picking up their end of the their end of the work they're leaving you with a lot of slack and so You look at that you think man, what is that?

What is the point? Why even try if I don't have help? How is there going to be any kind of effect? Maybe they maybe I'm the fool to put an effort here. You know all these thoughts come to mind and then the opposite is true.

Right when you see people working then you think wow, there really is a value in working. I Know that my work will have some kind of result because I see that their work has some kind of result. I I know that if they think this is wise that it gives me confidence that it is a wise thing to do.

I remember one particular time where I was involved in Cleaning up a it was an abandoned school as property I I was fairly young so I don't remember the details. But I believe what had happened was this abandoned school had been acquired by some charitable organization and it was in disrepair and needed to be cleaned up in order that they'd be able to use it or Sell it or something like that as a part of this very massive team to clean it up and so all my job as a ten-year-old or whatever I was was to cut IV off of a Off of a fence.

It was very very large school very large fence going all the way around. And I remember just being so impressed to see all the people painting and how fast they were working and see all the people cutting the IV and just going so fast.

It was just very encouraging to see all the work that was being done and I've you know There have been few times that are so similar where I'm just so encouraged to work hard because I see all the hard work Is being done very encouraged gaining a confidence in the value.

Confidence in the value of faithfulness and this is a this is a real thing. You look through scripture the way it speaks to this kind of refreshing. It says in 1st Corinthians 16 18. For they refreshed my spirit as well as yours give recognition to such people.

So Paul here is talking about Stephanus and Fortunatus. And he speaks specifically of Stephanus's house as having devoted themselves to the services of the Saints. So, why is it that Paul was refreshed by them?

Well Stephanus's house had devoted themselves to the service of the Saints. This was refreshing thing for him to see 2nd Timothy 1 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of a Ness for us for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

So Ness for us has visited Paul. He's not been ashamed of his chains and Paul says of him and you know, you well know all the service He rendered at Ephesus once again. The connection between service and refreshment is through one's sincere obedience that other workers are refreshed.

Now what is what is the spiritual refreshment? How does it take place? You know, what what is it? First of all, very simply it is not the same thing physical refreshment. Okay, there is a there is a Physical refreshment this word refreshment.

If I were to try to construct it for you etymologically, you know etymologically being like with the with the root words it would be something like Reseasing it has the notion of ceasing from work in it.

This is how people physically when they are refreshed are refreshed right is a you're working. You're tired. What do you do? You stop working. Most you know quintessentially you sleep right? That is the primary way of resting is to sleep.

So the way to be refreshed physically is to cease working. This is not the case spiritually a lot of people make this assumption, but it is not true the way to be refreshed Spiritually is not to cease working now.

There can be times because man is composed man is both body and soul. He is both body and spirit. There is a connection between the two and they're in in man's spiritual efforts. There is also a bodily effort and that bodily effort that work will require some kind of rest.

So that there would be a connection between the two and yes, it is good to rest if you are bodily weary. Maybe someone is involved in serious ministry efforts that have made them Bodily weary and so they will rest and that'll be important to them.

There's a connection between the two Psalm 127 to. So this is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest eating the bread of anxious toil for he gives to his Beloved sleep. Okay. Sleep is a good thing for for bodily weariness.

But the fact that there may be a connection between those two and often are does not mean that they should be conflated. You should not Conflate the two as being identical and you see people do this all the time even outside of any kind of Distinct notion of ministry.

All right. A lot of times people will do that with vacations now. There's all kinds of great reasons to take vacations. Okay, there is the bodily rest. There's building up family. There's enjoying God's creation.

There's all kinds of reasons but a lot of times people will throw in the notion of rest for other things other than body. All right, and they're talking about needing some kind of you know Psychological right the words sukkah meaning soul right a psychological rest or a spiritual rest and what happens when people Beyond those legitimate reasons I've described Engage in some kind of long-term rest.

For other reasons beyond bodily refreshment beyond enjoying God's creation beyond building up family. What usually happens do they come back from that? More refreshed and my experience know when I Engage in that kind of thing.

I come back not wanting to work. I come back lazier now a lot of people will say that they feel refreshed meaning they enjoyed it. Because that's the thing you're supposed to say, but they come back sluggish often which is the opposite of what some kind of rest is supposed to do and this is and you see people do this just over this notion of a psychological need for rest.

But how much more is it true in many spiritual circumstances, you know. There are a lot of times that churches will have a retreat or pastors will have a sabbatical where the same sort of things happens.

Once again, you know, there can be all kinds of good reasons for a retreat all kinds of good reasons for a sabbatical. I'm a fan of the notion of a working sabbatical that a pastor would take a lot of time to work on a project.

That he wouldn't have time to work on otherwise or maybe he's far away from his family. Needs to go spend time with family. His extended family things like that. There are all kinds of good reasons for that but a lot of times people get the notion that this man is weary and discouraged in ministry in doing particular work from the Lord that goes beyond just the weariness of his body and the What right way to refresh him is for him to stop doing any of that and that he'll come back feeling refreshed.

Do we have any indication in Scripture that that is the way spiritual refreshment work? Yes, that's the way the body works. This is not the way the Spirit works and I don't claim to have some long history of observations about this.

But in the few times I have seen it where someone has where a minister has taken that sort of rest that sort of sabbatical that goes beyond the legitimate reasons that you would have it to build up family to you know, You have to spend time with your extended family that you don't get to see to work on some other project, etc.

Beyond those things what I've found is even though they say the thing that they're supposed to say at the end that yes. They feel refreshed. Yes, they're ready to go back to work. It often is. Whatever whatever effort they put in to show that they appreciate it often very short-lived and often.

There's a discouragement that extends beyond that and the few examples that I'm aware of that is what I have observed but just speaking biblically we have no indication that you can gain a Spiritual refreshment by ceasing from the spiritual things that God has called you to when they are combined with physical things.

Yes, you need rest to To restore your body, but this is just not how the soul works. God has called us to Spiritual activity we don't refresh the spirit by ceasing from those things this is I Believe this is a very important concept because I think all kinds of All kinds of shenanigans happen Under the skies, you know, I recently saw a post from some church Decided and I know there's a lot going on here with a different kind of understanding of what the Sabbath is.

But maybe you've seen this before to a church that's deciding they're going to take a Sabbath and that means that they skip church that Sunday. So that everyone can rest. That's that's the idea they have in mind, you know to really rest is to abstain from spiritual things.

That's a real spiritual rest. And a lot of people will emphasize that and they won't understand the reformed notion of the Sabbath. Which is to actually spend a lot of time in worship, you know, the Catechism talks about.

I forget if it's the I think it's the larger Catechism Westminster larger Catechism talks about idleness as being a As being something that's forbidden on the Sabbath. But that's what a lot of people think that the Sabbath is supposed to be it's supposed to be idleness right because that's how you spiritually restore yourself as a very different notion of spiritual rest than the Than the Bible presents for us.

It presents something very different here and how is Titus restored. He's restored by making a difficult trip to the Corinthians and Seeing God at work in them. That is how he is restored, okay, so why Why does it?

Why does it restore. I can think of three categories of reasons? Okay, one is If remember if encouragement is an increased confidence in the value of faithfulness. You see that first of all in those that are doing the good work, right?

You see that they are working and it renews a a confidence that Others are working on the same task that you are and that you have aid in it, right? If we are working on the same kingdom.

Others.

Working on it is an encouragement and moreover It is not a like I mentioned false brothers in the beginning yeah, there are many false brothers in the world and Seeing someone labor seeing God work in them gives you confidence that they are indeed True brothers who are working on the same kingdom rather than false brothers who would be You know secret enemies of the kingdom.

So if you consider the Corinthians themselves, what is the case here? Paul had said In verse 9 as it is I rejoice not because you were grieved but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief that you suffered no loss through us.

So they have what is the obedience that Paul describes later? He uses the word obedience. What is that? Obedience is an obedience of repentance. It is demonstrating Demonstrating their identity as True believers he had said in 5 5 verse 20 therefore we are ambassadors for Christ God making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God a lot of people think of that versus You know ministers of reconciliation etc as referring to Those out in the world. Paul's using it referring to those in the church that they need reconciliation to God.

And so as that reconciliation is demonstrated, there's a greater confidence in others being true brothers and others. Engaging in the same labor that you are and is a it's a good Is a good encouragement to see that.

It's otherwise you feel that you're alone, otherwise you feel that there are people against you. There are and then secondly the next category would be an increased confidence in the value of faithfulness by having an increased confidence in.

The.

The commendations of others the boasts of others right. Paul had boasted and the Corinthians he had said these are good brothers Etc. It's easy to be skeptical about these kinds of things especially the longer you're in the faith.

It is very easy to be skeptical when people praise. Something is being very righteous. You know people praise all kinds of spiritual movements that are just. You know, they're harmful to the faith. Even oftentimes can be very easy to be skeptical of those things.

But if you see.

Good.

Yeah, true repentance, it's easy to be confident in those things. How many times have you heard someone tell you that that uh there was someone who converted and they came to the faith and You are very easily able to rejoice.

I struggle with this all the time, right? I know that the angels rejoice in heaven when one sinner repents, but then I hear about a repentance center and Because I don't know whether or not they really are a repentance center and I've been burned so many times on that.

It is hard for me to rejoice when I hear that kind of report. But if you do see it often that encourages you because you see confidence that hey, sometimes those reports are true. Sometimes this is God really is working in all this.

And so it increases Your confidence in the reports of others. Then also it increases your confidence in God that God is at work in others. He's at work in the kingdom. He is accomplishing things. Otherwise, you feel like you're laboring under a hard master.

You're laboring under Pharaoh who's giving you bricks to make it's giving you clay, but no straw. You've got to make the bricks, but he's not giving you the straw to make it and it's all just hopeless.

Okay, that is the way it often feels without them now. There are Of course other ways to be spiritually refreshed other ways to gain a confidence in the work that God is doing. Gain a confidence in the value of faithfulness.

You can see that by going to God's Word. You can be encouraged in prayer. There are all kinds of other ways. So I'm not trying to suggest that you are a victim of those believers around you who would either encourage you or not.

You can despite all those around you still be faithful. My point is to you who would be the ones around that worker to be faithful in Order that they would have a greater confidence in the value of faithfulness consider Paul's words in Philemon.

Philemon 7 He says for I have derived much joy and comfort from your love my brother because the hearts of the Saints have been refreshed Through you so not only Are the Saints refreshed not only our workers refreshed, but then others rejoice.

This is what Paul said in 2nd Corinthians, right? He said not only Excuse me and Besides our own comfort. We rejoice still more at the joy of Titus because his spirit has been refreshed. So what was the effect of the Corinthians sincere obedience?

It was not just a refreshment of Titus. It was the joy the rejoicing of Paul. And so there's a cascading effect from all that Philemon 120 he says yes, brother I want some benefit from you in the Lord refresh my heart in Christ and after this he speaks of being confident of his obedience.

How is he to be refreshed? He's going to come to Philemon and he's expecting Philemon's obedience in the matter that he has written about. That is how he's going to be refreshed by Philemon. Okay, so this is what?

This is how refreshment takes place Through obedience through that is how it takes place through good works. Now as you are Serving the Lord with sincere obedience doing good works with the idea of accomplishing this purpose of encouraging people in In their work what ought you to have in mind about the kind of obedience is necessary to do that Primarily as we've defined good works of sincere obedience.