Christian Liberality from Abiding, Part 1

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Christian generosity does not depend on your socioeconomic station in life, but instead on abiding in the vine. Our giving is the outflow.

It's the fruit of what's happening in our hearts. Humankind looks at giving differently than God does. When watching the rich throw their offerings into the temple treasury, Jesus remarked that the widow who gave out of her poverty was the one who had put in more than the others. In today's message, we will look at how God sees our giving from 2 Corinthians 8, 8 through 15. Christian generosity. In the last week, the title of the message was Liberality that Abounds.

This week, the title is Liberality from Abiding. The Lord said, a good man out of the abundance of his heart brings forth what is good. And that is true here, particularly in this case. Christianity, I mean, liberality from abiding speaks of Christian generosity as an outflow of what occupies your heart and mind. As Proverbs says, as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

Never is that more true than in this case. The Apostle Paul begins in 2 Corinthians 8. He says, I speak not by commandment.

He's offering them an opportunity. Are you speaking to the Corinthian churches? If you remember, it's the church in Jerusalem, the Christians in the Jerusalem that are suffering because of persecution. But the Apostle Paul says it's not by command. I'm not giving you a command. I'm not using my apostolic authority and say you need to supply the needs of the Jerusalem Christians. Because he knows that if he's just issuing orders, it's only a test of their obedience.

That's one thing. But if he presents them with an opportunity, inviting them to this opportunity, then what he's doing is he's offering them that opportunity for a spontaneous response, which is a test of their love. A test of their love, which he says in verse 8, I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others.

How is this a test of their love? I want you to consider the Apostle John's statement in 1 John chapter 3 verses 16 and 17. We read this often, particularly when we celebrate the Lord's table. By this we know love because he laid down his life for us. Love is truth lived.

It's not just words. Love is truth lived. By this we know love because he laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. That's sacrifice. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

That's a good logical question, isn't it? If you say the love of God abides in you and yet you see a brother in need and you are calloused about that need, how can you say that God's love abides in you? So as the Apostle Paul gives the Corinthian church an invitation to this opportunity, he is testing the genuineness of their love. And he has a measurement for it as he says at the end of verse 8, by the diligence of others. Your diligence can be translated eagerness. Your eagerness to give, is this truly an outflow or is this just a mechanical duty as doing what Christians ought to do?

That's not what he's inviting them to. Let's speak of that outflow. And it begins, we see, the anchor of it. The fountainhead of it is in verse 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. As I mentioned last time, the word grace, this is all rooted in grace. And this word grace appears ten times in these two chapters.

You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. That is the gospel of grace. Right there in verse 9. Even in this context, in the subject of giving, it is all about grace. It says he took your poverty to give you his riches. That's the gospel. We find it, for example, back in chapter 5. For he made him, the Father made him, the Son, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God.

You see the exchange there. He who knew no sin. He gave up his riches. He became poor. He set aside his glory. The majestic, infinite, sovereign creator set aside his glory, took on the form of a man became in the likeness of a servant. He became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich. And it is his poverty, his extreme poverty, where on the cross he absorbed the blow of God's wrath that you and I deserve.

Why? So that we could get his riches. So that you and I, by faith, would be able to stand before God knowing that we've been reconciled to God. We've been justified before a holy, righteous God.

How's that for riches? He became poor so that we, through his poverty, might be made rich. You see, that's the gospel of grace. And the apostle Paul presents that as the anchor, as the fountainhead of Christian generosity. He begins, he states it as he does in verse 12. For if there is first a willing mind, a willing mind, a consciousness, a sense of generosity.

Why? Because it is all about the grace of God. And see, therein is the importance of remembering, as we do from time to time. We're called together to the Lord's table to remember him, to focus specifically, purposefully, worshipfully on what Christ did for us. That he became poor for us so that we might be made rich in him. And that develops the willing mind of which he speaks in verse 12. Such spontaneous love and generosity begins with a gospel centered mind. A gospel centered mind leads to a gospel focused life. That's the necessity of abiding.

That is the idea of liberality from abiding. Abiding in Christ. Never losing sight of the gospel of grace, but remembering that I deserved nothing but the righteous judgment of God and yet he lavished upon me his grace of redemption and regeneration. And as an outflow of that, as I remember that, as that becomes the focus of my attitudes, he develops within me that generosity and that liberality. There is, as he says in verse 11, right in the middle of verse 11, that as there was a readiness to desire it, a readiness to desire it. That is the evidence of God's work in me at the level of desire.

Why? Because I am abiding in Christ. I am the branch drawing life from the tree through the gospel of grace. And so the outflow of a gospel focused life is this generosity. It is abiding. That abiding is remembering verse nine, that he became poor so that I through his poverty might be made rich.

It's remembering 521. He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Homer Kent in his exposition of 2 Corinthians says, a self-sacrificing, generous spirit should be normal for every Christian. There's an oughtness there, isn't there? Should be normal for every Christian.

Why is that? Because that's what Christians do. No, that's not how grace works. It should be normal for every Christian because as a Christian in Christ, I do not lose sight of the grace of God and his marvelous abounding generosity to me, none of which I deserve. And so that becomes then the anchor and the fountainhead of my liberality and my generosity. And he continues in verse 12, for if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has and not according to what he does not have. In essence, what the apostle Paul is saying here in this paragraph, it is not the amount, but the attitude that matters. We fund God's work. He looks to us to develop in us that generosity, that liberality as a manifestation of the grace of God. And he's developing that within us. And we're all able, capable of giving different amounts, some great amounts, some small amounts.

But we have to understand that in the eyes of sovereignty, in the eyes of an infinite sovereign, it's not the amount that matters to God unless somehow that amount is attached to a particular attitude. There was a story of a man, two brothers who were in business together, and they had less than Christian attitudes about business and their tactics. And one brother died and the other brother decided to give to the church, pastor, I want to give this amount to the church, he says, but there's one stipulation in the funeral. I want you to tell the congregation that my brother was a saint.

But see, now he had a dilemma. There's this large sum of money that was coming to the church that could really help develop the ministry. But the condition was he had to tell the congregation that this gentleman that died was a saint. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.