The Grace of Reconciliation

If you would, we want to go back
to the same passage in which we found ourselves last week.
2 Corinthians 6, verse 1. We began in this passage with
a bit of an alarm, really. Upon reading those words in verse
1, we urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain. And
we took up the entire hour, didn’t we, studying those few words
and really wrestling with that thought, what is it to receive
the grace of God in vain? Because it just seems totally
incongruous based on what we know of the rest of Scripture.
We urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain. If you
would, let’s take it in its context. I want to go back to the beginning
of verse one. We’ll consider that passage and then we’ll press on into the
material that we’ll be considering this morning, if you would. Chapter
six, beginning in verse one, where Paul writes, in working
together with him, we also urge 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 pardon me, giving no cause for offense
in anything so that the ministry will not be discredited. But
in everything, commending ourselves as servants of God. in much endurance,
in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in
imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in
hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in
the Holy Spirit, in genuine 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, yet behold, we live as punished, yet not
put to death, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet
making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing all things. And
so perhaps people figured when I said that there’s six months
worth of material here, maybe they figured I was I wasn’t kidding.
And that they wouldn’t miss much out of that great list to skip
one Sunday. We’ll pray for those that are
absent and await their return. I want to go back to verse one
and just kind of recap where we were. Verse one, it says, we urge you
not to receive the grace of God in vain. That’s the simple sentence,
and I suggested to you last week, that is the overarching theme
of this great final section on the Christian ministry that Paul
has been addressing since chapter 2, verse 17. I would entitle
this great section, The Grace of Reconciliation. God’s grace
reconciling the world to himself. But the particular concern in
this passage, in this verse, verse 1, is a call to the sure
use or employment of God’s grace, a very direct call, a very unmistakable
plea to the saints to employ correctly the grace of God. That’s
Paul’s main thought, as we saw all the way down through verse
10 that covers everything in that great verse. Everything
else is subordinate or supportive of it, as we will see. I even
suggested the subtitle, the four undergirding pillars in this
appeal to reconciliation. But this initial thought was
kind of an important one to deal with because it stops us in our
tracks because to receive the grace of God, and yet if the
grace of God is what it is, to receive it and then have it be
vain, empty, worth nothing is Rather concerning, it should
be to our hearts and minds. And it appeared to be a problem,
but we began to look at that. The question was simple, that
if this statement was addressed to the Corinthians, to the believers,
and it certainly seems that that was the case, and if the grace
here really was saving grace and if this word received means
to appropriate by faith this divine grace of salvation, as
is the typical use of the word, And if this word vain means utterly
empty and worthless as it does. Then we have a seeming contradiction
based on all that we know from Scripture. That those who can
receive God’s grace by faith, it can in time become empty to
them in some way. Perhaps they can lose their salvation.
Well, we took a look at that concerned with that very thought.
And the suggestion was that either grace here refers to something
other than saving grace or received means something less than to
be welcomed and appropriated by faith or vain means something
less than it does. Maybe it means just that we lose
blessings if we don’t rightly appropriate God’s grace. And
so we began to look at those questions. To whom is the apostle
speaking? What is this grace? What does
it mean to receive this grace? What does it mean to receive
the grace of God in vain? What is this concern? We looked at a number of different
suggestions. They don’t always do that, but
I felt it was appropriate to consider some of the suggestions
and in a sense, poke holes in them as we went. We came finally
to the conclusion that Paul was very likely speaking to the Corinthians.
That it’s a very distinct possibility that not everyone in the Corinthian
church was truly and genuinely in Christ. That there were many
in the Corinthian church, just as there are in the Providence
Bible Church, that are, as it were, hangers on. They come,
they go through the motions, they dress like Christians, they
talk like Christians, they look like Christians, but they’re
not Christians. They have not rightly appropriated
the grace of God, whether they’re young people and hearing of these
things, hearing of them in school, hearing of them in Sunday school,
hearing of them in church, hearing of them at home. And yet they
have not yet appropriated the grace of God. it caused us no
ultimate concern that Paul would write these things to the Corinthians
in general, just as I would read them just as faithfully to the
Providence Bible, saints, that I don’t ultimately know who of
all of you are truly saved and who are not. God knows. And God, by His Spirit, initiated
these words We urge you, using the same language that Paul had
just used in 520, we beg you. Paul says, look, I don’t know which
of you are truly saved, but we urge you in the most solemn manner
not to receive the grace of God in vain. And in vain, we took
it to mean exactly what it means in the rest of Scripture. It’s
utterly worthless. And there are those that receive,
in a sense, the grace of God. They toy with it, as it were,
and ultimately it ends up for them absolutely worthless. They did not properly appropriate
the grace of God. And so the concern in view with
this passage is the reception of the grace. The word doesn’t have to be toyed
with much. We know that ultimately we are
to receive and to appropriate by faith. That’s what it means
to receive. But we know that there are many
that just tinker and toy. They treat it as a hobby. The very grace of God. The whole
subject of salvation to them is of importance, but it’s not
of ultimate importance. It’s an important thing, but
not the greatest and most important thing. And so we saw in the final
analysis that it isn’t that Paul was suggesting that true Christians
can lose their salvation. If they have truly drunk from
the well of salvation, if they have truly appropriated God’s
grace and faith in their life, if they have truly come to know
Christ and they are in Christ, they are in Christ forever, they
will never lose their salvation. But there were many that were
dabbling in Christianity. There were many that were toying
with it, that were just treating it as so many amusements that
they had toyed with in the past, entertaining various philosophies,
entertaining various religions, entertaining various self-helps.
And so they had not truly received it. And so Paul doesn’t suggest
that those that are truly in Christ can lose their salvation.
What he says here is that it’s a very distinct possibility
that some of you don’t possess it to begin with. And in that
sense, it is in vain. Paul pleads with the unbeliever,
as I said, just as he did in chapter 5, verse 20. We beg you
on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. And here it is with the
same apostolic and pleading heart of the shepherd. And just as
the plea went out to the Church of Corinth generally and to the
to the saints that were in their midst, they heard it. But knowing
that they had already appropriated the grace of God, the message
wasn’t in essence to them, but ultimately to those who sat next
to them. We considered the parable of
the sower, and that was a good image. There’s nothing wrong
with the seed. Paul had preached the same gospel
to the same people in the midst of Corinth, and the seed had
gone scattering, as it were, much like the parable of the
sower. And to some hearts, it was fruitful and to others, it
was absolutely worthless and immediately gobbled up by the
birds or Satan himself. Paul says, let it not be so. The very grace of God has come
to you, the grace of salvation. And for those of us who know
it, that’s why we’re here this morning. We’re here over and
over again on Sunday to lift our voices in praise and to bow
our heads and hearts in prayer and to say thank you to God for
the great salvation that He has given to us based on nothing
that was in us, but purely by God’s grace. Essentially, what
Paul did as we left off last week, he issues a divine warning
a solemn call to consider our hearts, much like he does at
the end of 2nd Corinthians, which book, by the way, I will come
back and finish someday. But when we wrap up in chapter
6, verse 10, I will go back to Philippians. When I wrap up in
Philippians, I will go back to Luke. When we wrap up Luke, we
may come back here. But for now, 2nd Corinthians
chapter 11 says this, I am afraid to the Corinthian people. I’m
afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds
will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
Second Corinthians 13 5, no wonder he says, test yourselves. To
see if you are in the faith, examine yourselves. Do you not
recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless
you fail the test? Is God at work? Is God duplicating
godliness in you? Is God growing you in grace? Well, Paul Paul makes his point. We understand his point now.
He’s not questioning or wanting to suggest that we can lose our
salvation one day if we just fail to appropriate God’s grace
faithfully one morning. He’s concerned about this ministry
of reconciliation. He has been since chapter five,
verse 11. That’s what the whole thing is
about. This great ministry of reconciliation, reconciling fallen
sinners to a holy God. And what Paul has done here is
a call to the sure employment of grace, and I suggested to
you last week that there are four undergirding pillars to
that appeal for reconciliation, and it is to those that we turn
this morning. Four undergirding pillars of
this appeal for reconciliation. First of all, this sweet summons
to grace. And you have to pause and meditate
upon that very truth. That it is of grace and that
we have this great privilege of God. to be part of this calling
out of the world, sinners unto God for reconciliation, so that
they might too enjoy the grace of God. But it is a sweet summons
to grace. This sweet summons to grace,
first of all, if you look back again at verse 1, is made in
cooperation with God. It’s made in cooperation with
God. We are at work with the Lord. And I know that since the earliest
days of Sunday school, we’re in the Lord’s army and singing
the songs. I know we have this mindset that
we’re on God’s team. But for Paul to put it this plainly
is absolutely overwhelming. That we are co-workers. That
we are co-laborers. that we are partners in this
great ministry of reconciling sinners to God? It’s an overwhelming
thought. Look at verse 1, “…and working
together with Him, we urge you not to receive the grace of God
in vain.” I told you that everything else hangs on that statement
in verse 1, the simple sentence. But that little subordinated
They’re working together with Him. We can’t look over that.
When we as believers make this magnanimous plea to unbelievers
to receive by faith the message of Jesus Christ and His finished
work on the cross and to call people to repentance in that,
in that moment, in that activity, we are in partnership, a cooperative
effort. But with whom? Because the problem
is in some of your translations, maybe even help you by italicizing
the words with him. Because the words in the Greek
are not there. The words with him are not in the original.
And so the question is to precisely who Paul is talking about here
sometimes has come up in the history of the church. There
have been a number of suggestions, and I’m going to give them to
you. We are not going to spend the entire hour examining the
ins and outs of who Paul was referring to. There are a number
of possibilities. One said we cooperate with God.
You know where I stand on that one. Others have said that we
cooperate with Christ, and that is true. Christ is God, and in
a sense, we cooperate with the deity. Yet, It’s the little pronoun him that
is in view. One said it of Christ, they work
together with Christ for the salvation of man. That is true.
Christ isn’t out of the equation, isn’t just passively sitting
at the right hand of God. Some suggested that we cooperate
with others and in Paul’s case with the Corinthians themselves,
we working together with you, we urge you. which doesn’t seem
to fit or make sense at all. Others still said that Paul was
suggesting that we cooperate with other teachers. For Paul,
we cooperate with Timothy, with Barnabas, with Silvanus and others. It’s a nice thought and the thought
is echoed in 1 Corinthians, but that’s not Paul’s thought here.
The most amusing of all was that we cooperate with our exhortations
by our godly life. We’re preaching on the one hand
and we’re living godly lives on the other. And so the two
cooperate together, which is just almost an absurd use of
the English language. So which one is it? It’s quite
simple. And that’s why the translators
have so often gone with we working together with him. Working together
with him, think back to 2nd Corinthians five, just look back to 2nd Corinthians,
chapter five. Look there at verse 18, where
Paul said it quite plainly. Now, all these things are from
God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave to us
the ministry of reconciliation. Now, it’s not even remotely suggested
there that God gave the ministry to Paul and then sat down and
recused himself of all involvement in the work of grace. It’s a
silly thought. What Paul is saying there is
that God invited us in, He drew us in, He put us to work, He
employed us by His grace in this overwhelming privilege. of participating
in the work of the ministry. Look at verse 20 of the same
chapter, chapter five, verse 20. Therefore, we are ambassadors
for Christ. It’s not that we go out on our
own. That’s contained in that very little word, isn’t it? That
ambassador. We have been sent. We have been dispatched. We are
part of a cooperative effort with the king. We are on his
behalf. We are ambassadors for Christ
as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you
on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. It is an absolutely overwhelming
thought that in the ministry as Christians, even as we open
our mouths to share with the neighbor in whatever feeble way
we do with a tract in our hand or an invitation to some Bible
study or such thing, We are in that moment cooperating with
God in the work of divine reconciliation. Paul said it even more plainly
in 1 Corinthians 3 9. In 1 Corinthians 3 9, he said,
we are God’s fellow workers. We are workers that belong to
God, we work alongside of others. But ultimately, we work alongside
and in cooperation with God who gives us the grace. He gave us
the ministry. He gives us the words to say. God is behind it all. And so
in a very appropriate sense, the translators have rightly
supplied in him or with him here, working together with him. One
said it this way. The noblest view of ministry
is to see it as working together in partnership with God. Can
you imagine how much more seriously we would begin to take it if
we really began to view it as a partnership with God? Disappointment over the difficulties
of the ministry begins with a failure to understand the high privilege
which God’s servants are called. And sometimes difficulties come
and sometimes they bring us to our knees and sometimes they
lay us low and sometimes we don’t get back up. We don’t get back
up because we forget that we were in a partnership. All who serve Christ, he goes
on to say, should be consummately grateful for the privilege and
faithful to it, no matter how severe the difficulties. We’ll
look at the difficulties in the weeks to come. That’s what remains
in verses five and following is this great long list of difficulties
that Paul said would not, could not stand in the way. We’ll look
at those. All who serve Christ should be
consummately grateful for the privilege and be faithful to
it, no matter how severe the difficulties. Amazingly, the
God of glory condescends to work through believers to proclaim
his gospel of reconciliation. We were we were astounded with
this thought several weeks ago. The very thought that God would
include us in the process when he could very easily just dispatch
one little email and call by divine summons All of those elect
all of those whom he has set his electing grace upon. God doesn’t need us, but he has
chosen to use us and as such, we are in partnership. Philippians 2, 13 echoes this
thought, it is God who is at work in you both to will and
to work for his good pleasure. God’s in us, but we’re working.
Colossians 1.29, Paul said it of himself, for this purpose
also I labor, striving according to His power. If it weren’t for
God’s grace in and through me, I could do nothing. But given
God’s grace, I’m going to work. That’s what Paul says. For this
purpose I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily
works within me. And what thought is more appropriate
than this. At this point, 1 Corinthians
3, 6-7, I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth
because it’s a partnership. If God weren’t in partnership
with us, no matter what we did, no matter what kind of planting
or what kind of watering we did, if God wasn’t behind it, if God
didn’t cause the growth, there is no ministry. Paul summarizes
by saying, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters
is anything but God. who causes the growth. We don’t
look to take anything away, but God is the one that’s called
us partners. We don’t take anything away from God by calling us what
God’s already called us to be and to do, working together with
Him. Secondly, I said that there are
four undergirding pillars of this appeal to reconciliation. When we go out, we go out in
cooperation with God. But this sweet summons to grace
is secondly, the declared moment of opportunity, the declared
moment of opportunity. And I believe in my bulletins,
I underlined it for you. It is the declared moment of
opportunity. Look at verse two. beginning
in verse 1, and working together with him, we also urge 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. This is so typical of Paul. I
love his enthusiasm. And in his speaking and in his
writing, even as he’s in the midst of this, he remembers this
Old Testament quote, which will fit perfectly here. And he goes
to Isaiah chapter 49, verse 8. Listen. Thus says the Lord. In a favorable time, I have answered
you in a day of salvation. I have helped you and I will
keep you and give you for a covenant of the people to restore the
land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage. In other words,
it is a divine blessing of God, this proof, this fruit. But the quotation is taken there
by Paul. to mean something even beyond
what it seems to mean there in the book of Isaiah. Because in
the book of Isaiah, the emphasis there was for the Messiah. And so it has a number of different
applications, even within the text that we consider it here.
When he says, behold, the day on the day of pardon me at the
acceptable time, I listened to you on the day of salvation,
I helped you. It’s as if God is saying, here I am, I’ve done
it. It is laid before you. It’s appropriate to consider
it in view of Christ. It has reference or can easily
be applied to Christ because he was in focus to begin with
as the servant of Jehovah there in Isaiah. The words originally
of Isaiah were spoken regarding him. One summarized it in these
terms. It says the prophetic utterance
is to Christ. The emphasis comes on the on
the time, the accepted time, because it is such a time men
should be aware how they receive the grace of God. God heard Christ
and helped him in a favorable time to the accomplishment of
his work, and so certainly it’s it has reference to Christ. At
the acceptable time, I listened to you on the day of salvation,
I helped you with all these souls, with all these people coming
to Christ. Certainly it has reference to
Christ. And in a sense, it had reference to Paul. Paul was carrying
the gospel to Corinth, he’d experienced God’s great power in bringing
sinners to reconciliation to Christ. Paul could certainly
understand this passage at the acceptable time on the day of
salvation. I helped you. There were those coming literally
to the very salvation that is spoken of here in Isaiah. Hundreds
of years earlier. One summarized it in these terms
for Paul. The passage may have occurred
to Paul because of the resemblance of his own case to that of the
great prophet. In Isaiah 49, the prophet points
out that the Lord had formed him in the womb to be his servant,
to reconcile Israel again to him, but also to give him as
a light to the Gentiles, that his salvation may be to the end
of the earth. Although men despise him, God
will honor him by confirming his message. And the God who
had compassion on Israel in spite of their sins will again have
compassion on all the nations. Certainly, Paul could empathize
with this statement, right? Behold, on the day of salvation,
Paul had seen many come to Christ. But it also it also has a very
significant meaning for those that were in Corinth. And for
those that are in our midst, even today, who do not know Christ. Even to those who have come to
know Christ, we know and we can affirm, behold, today is the
day of salvation. To the Corinthians, it was appropriate. Who in their reception of the
gospel, the message of reconciliation, basically saw the proof of this
verse working itself out. The reality of God’s grace in
the Lord Jesus Christ and in his his eagerness to reconcile
sinners to himself. It certainly was appropriate
to the Corinthians. And it echoed in the ears of those who did
not know Christ. One put it this way. He said
the quotation serves to remind the Corinthian believers of those
wonderful days of repentance and conversion when they had
received the gift of salvation under Paul’s ministry. And Paul,
basically, if you look at the passage, Paul drives this point
home, doesn’t he? By adding the second part of
that verse. Behold, now is the acceptable
time. Paul, as it were, turns and urges
all to consider that great truth that God is at work. God is bearing
fruit. God has begun this process of
reconciliation and it won’t last forever. What he does is call the attention
to the Corinthians that they themselves Through his ministry,
through the preaching of the word, they had come to know Christ
and they had firsthand knowledge that God was at work. But the bottom line was. Time
is of the essence. There’s a very real possibility
that they won’t have another opportunity. I think of all the
things that haunts me more in ministry. It is those moments
when you come face to face with a person that, you know, more
or more likely than not, you probably will never see them
again. You think of how many people we meet in this world,
how many people we come across, and then if by God’s grace alone. We are faithful to seize the
moment to to lay out Christ. How do we know? How do they know
that that isn’t the day of salvation? That isn’t the glorious day of
opportunity. And mind me, I haven’t lost sight
of my greater theology. There will be none that are lost.
God is not going to wag his finger at us because of or they’re not
going to wag their finger rather at God because we were unfaithful. But God may in turn wag his finger
at us for unfaithfulness. Where were you in pleading for
souls? Where were you on those glorious
days of opportunity? Because those moments of opportunities
very rarely return, don’t they? We’re in conversation with an
individual. We may be sharing. We may be beginning to cultivate
a conversation with them, but we never get around to talking
about Christ. We never get around to talking
about the grace of God that is available for them. And we purpose
to meet with them again and then they’re gone. Either they move
or we change locations or our paths never cross again. Or even
worse, the Lord takes them away. We can’t put off acknowledging
day by day the glorious day of salvation in our own life and
the very moment of opportunity for others. The sweet summons to grace is
the very declared moment of opportunity for sinners. Thirdly, The sweet
summons to grace, the third undergirding pillar in this appeal for reconciliation. The third point is that the sweet
summons of grace is from a devotion to honor our calling, a devotion
to honor our calling. Look at verse three. And we’ll take that. just as
it stands where Paul says, giving no cause for offense in anything
so that the ministry will not be discredited. Working together
with Him, knowing that the day of salvation is at hand, giving
no cause for offense in anything. These things stand to undergird
this great call to reconciliation. giving no cause for offense in
anything. The verse is directly tied back
to verse one, where Paul had said, we urge you. And he has
this spirit of heart that really aims at giving offense to no
person. The little word there, proskope,
It signifies anything that causes one to fall, often suggested
as a stumbling block, what causes other people to stumble, either
in behavior or belief. It literally denotes in life
a stumbling block, but figuratively, it’s that which leads another
person into sin or sinfulness. It basically becomes the occasion
of disbelief And if you can imagine going
out and you’re scattering seed and then, as it were, gathering
that seed back up, that’s essentially what happens. It is the occasion
of disbelief. It is the play occasion rather
of misappropriation of the very grace that we go preaching. Paul
wanted to make absolutely sure that it was whatever obstacle
lay in the way, he didn’t want anything to be due to his own
life or lifestyle, due to the words, not because of any sin
in his life. Paul didn’t want that to be an
obstacle to the right appropriation of grace. And it is a serious
thing, isn’t it, for us Christians to know that we live in front
of a watching world, to know that the world is watching us
and unbelievers often will bring up The most slight slip on our
behalf, words that we use, behaviors that we manifest, attitudes that
we have. They’re quick to point it out.
They’re watching and you know it. The bottom line is that what
Paul says here is that our profession of Christ should not be in conflict
with our daily life or the daily conduct that we manifest before
the world. Our walk should match our talk.
John Calvin, years ago, said it is a favorite trickery of
Satan to seek some misconduct on the part of his ministers,
which may tend to the dishonor of the gospel. The devil likes
nothing more than to get one of us to fall. For when he has been successful,
And bringing the ministry into contempt, all hopes of progress
are destroyed. It’s a sad truth, isn’t it? We
know it well. I can remember in the 80s or
whenever it was during the Swigert and Baker and all those other
scandals, it was difficult, wasn’t it? For those of you who have
been in the Lord for a while, it was difficult to talk to people
about the Lord, wasn’t it? Oh, yeah, right. One of them.
And it was difficult in last year when Difficulties came here
in Colorado to the guy in the springs and other places. It’s
always difficult and it always brings reproach upon the name
of Christ. And it always makes ministry
more difficulty. And Paul said, heaven forbid. Heaven forbid that I do anything
that stands in the way of someone being able to interact and rightly
appropriate the very grace of God. Can you imagine to stand
in the way of the grace of God reaching out to a sinner, to
reconcile him to a holy God, and we stand in the way with
our life and our lifestyle and our words? One pastor said it this way,
nothing is more likely to cause the name of God to be blasphemed
and mocked by believers than the example of a minister whose
conduct of himself is evidently a contradiction of the very transforming
power of God in Christ, which he advocates in his preaching.
And so we go living one way and preaching another, and it nullifies
the very message that we bring. And Paul here, He says it categorically. He didn’t want anything to stand
in the way. Nothing. Giving no cause for
offense in anything. In fact, he said, if a hamburger
causes my brother to fall, I won’t eat hamburgers if that’s the
case. Paul didn’t want his ministry
discredited by some little thing. Richard Hooker, the Puritan,
said it this way in the least thing. The least thing done disobediently
toward God or offensively against the goodwill of men whose benefit
we ought to seek for our own. We plainly show that we do not
acknowledge God to be such as he is and consequently that we
glorify him not. In other words, we’re saying
one thing with our mouth. We’re out there preaching, but
our deeds and our life stands in the way, echoing a far different
case, a far different scenario that we’re not really concerned
with them. We don’t really believe what we’re preaching. We don’t
really believe that God is a great judge. We don’t really believe
in the transforming grace of God that can change our hearts
and lives. We don’t really believe it. We’re
preaching it. We don’t really believe it. And
I love the way he says it’s the least thing, the little things,
punctuality and the like. Spurgeon, years ago, I seized
upon this quote, said it this way. When we say to you, my dear
brethren, take care of your life. He’s talking about your witness.
We mean be careful of even the minutia of your character. Avoid
little debts, unpunctuality, gossiping, nicknaming, petty
quarrels, and all those other little vices which fill the ointment
with flies.” I love the way he puts that. We tend not to think of those
things as being much of a problem. We don’t worry much about punctuality.
We certainly don’t worry about gossiping and debts. And as such,
we undermine the very testimony of our lips. We are watched,
we’re constantly watched and we’re watched by those that are
not friendly towards Christ and are not inclined to our message. We’re watched by people that,
in essence, are enemies with God and lying in wait. eager
to find some little sin of ours, some little slip so that we can
they could point it up and discredit the ministry that we bring. One said it this way, he said,
there is a particular malice, hatred in the world against all
those who are born of God. They bring reproaches, those
evil speakings of the world against pious men. They are partly gross
false falsehoods invented without the least ground or appearance
of truth. But how much more will the wicked
insult upon the least real blemishes that they can spy out among professors? They strictly pry into and maliciously
object against Christians, the smallest imperfections and frailties
of their lives. No wonder we have to be careful.
We have to be careful how we live because we don’t want to
discredit the ministry in anything. We can’t remember or we can’t
forget. We must remember that we live
before enemies that are constantly on the watch and we have to constantly
watch over ourselves, over our lives. We have to constantly
look to the grace of God, keeping our eyes on the author and finisher
of our faith. We have to constantly cry out
for new grace to live the life that we’ve been called to live.
There’s a fourth undergirding pillar, and I’ll close with this
this morning. This sweet summons to grace is made in cooperation
with God. It is made is the declaration
rather that pardon. It is the declared moment of
opportunity. It is from a devotion to honor our calling. And fourthly,
it is attended with our commitment to serve. Our commitment to serve. Paul says, but in everything,
commending ourselves and As servants of God, it wasn’t enough for
Paul to say to say it in the negative that, look, we don’t
want to offend. We don’t want to stand in the way of this great
gospel message. But it’s quite another thing to say that we
commend ourselves. We push ourselves to the front. Paul says the point is so crucial,
there’s so much at stake that Paul not only states the principle
in the negative, giving no offense. But here also in the positive.
commending ourselves in everything as servants of God. Essentially,
what he says is that we recommend ourselves, we recommend the gospel
by our conduct. That there is a moral necessity
for us to live what it is we preach. A lot of times people
will try to lay claim to whatever degrees they possess or what
training or what seminars, what Bible deal they went to, what
theology books they own, what crowd they hang out with, what
church they go to, whatever. And the only thing that really
matters to an unbeliever who’s looking at your life, it isn’t
where you went to seminary or what books you have or what friends
you have or what church you go to at all, is it? It’s your life. What about your life? And to our ears, I understand
it. To our ears, this thought sounds
somewhat arrogant, doesn’t it? As if Paul is saying, hey, look
at me, right? I am a model Christian. Look
at me. And in a very real sense, that is what he’s saying. But
it isn’t human ego that led him to say that it wasn’t a man centered
arrogance that led Paul to say these things. God had so worked
in Paul’s life He enjoyed such a great measure of God’s transforming
grace that he could say to others. Watch and do do as I do. Join
in following my example. You are. If you are in Christ
and you name the name of Christ, you are an example to believers
and nonbelievers alike. If you name the name of Christ,
You stand yourself out there as a product, as a billboard,
as it were, advertising for Christ saying, look at me. I am the example of what a Christian
is to you. And for some, that thought is
frightening and should be. One set of years ago, that example
is better than precept, I don’t necessarily subscribe to that.
Example is important, but there’s nothing wrong with the precept.
There’s nothing wrong with the biblical precepts that call sinners
to salvation. But an example is helpful, it’s
not better than the law, it’s not better than the offer of
the gospel, but it is helpful. If no example is found, we are
still ultimately bound by the precept, the sinner is not absolved,
even if all the Christians lived like heathens. But a better encouragement
here is the Puritan Jeremy Taylor’s that said great is the force
of godly example. Both to the believer, to provoke
him to further obedience and to the unbeliever, either to
bring him to a liking for religion or to condemn him. Great is the
force of godly example. It’s exactly what Acts 1.8 says. You will be my witnesses. He
didn’t say what kind of a witness you’re going to be. But as we go out in Christ, we
are the witnesses for Him in our life and in our words. Paul
wasn’t afraid to be an example. Some of my relatives used to
tell me, don’t do as I do, do as I say. Pretty common statement. Paul wasn’t afraid to say, do
as I do. Watch and do likewise. Philippians 3.17, join in following
my example. Philippians 4.9, the things you
have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice
these things. The world, your friends in Christ,
especially those that are outside of Christ, need an earthly example. They need you to live a godly
life. First Corinthians 4.16, I exhort
you, therefore, be imitators of me. Is Paul arrogant? No, he’s following Christ and
he urges us to follow him. First Corinthians 11.1. Be imitators
of me, just as I am also of Christ. Second Corinthians 4.2. We have
renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness
or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth,
commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight
of God. Second Thessalonians 3.7, you
yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, to offer
ourselves as a model for you as His goal, that you might follow
our example. It’s never going to be perfect. In a sense, we should never be
ultimately satisfied with our lives and our lifestyle here.
We ought to constantly be calling on Christ and examining new corners
of our life to confess to God But ultimately, that fourth pillar
is quite important, isn’t it? To commend ourselves to God,
to commend ourselves to others by our life, particularly those
outside of Christ. It is a crucial thing. And Paul
says nothing, no circumstances can or should stand in the way.
And we’ll take those up next Lord’s Day. Let’s pray. Our God, You are so merciful
to include us saved sinners in the very work of reconciliation. Lord, grant us the grace to live
as You’ve called us to live, so as to not discredit, but to
enhance the call of others to the great work of reconciliation
in Christ. We thank You and praise You.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.