Please turn with me this morning to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Verses 1 through 13, as we continue making our way through this letter from the Apostle Paul. To the first century church at Corinth. 2 Corinthians chapter 6, you're looking at verses 1 through. Thirteen.
This is God's inspired, inerrant, an authoritative word. Sufficient. to equip us for every good work. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, in a favorable time, I listen to you.
And in a day of salvation, I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way.
By great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings. imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights. Hunger. By purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit. genuine love.
By truthful speech and the power of God. With the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. Through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as impostors and yet are true. as unknown and yet well known, As dying And behold, we live. As punished.
and yet not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. as poor yet making many rich. as having nothing. Yet possessing everything. We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians.
Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us. But you are restricted. in your own affections. In return, I speak as to children.
widen your hearts also. Let's pray together. Lord of all truth, would you open our ears now to hear your word? Open our minds to understand what you have said. But Lord, even if we hear and understand your truth today, but close our hearts to that truth, we're in a worse condition than if we had never heard it.
heard at all.
So, please not only open our ears and minds, but our hearts as well. Give us open hearts. that love you, that want to hear what you're saying. Give us grace not only to comprehend, but to believe. and obey and love your word.
to the saving of our souls.
Souls. which without your grace would be forever in sin. and misery and darkness. but by your grace are washed, and sanctified. and glorified for all eternity.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen. A while back, I was introduced to a concept I had not heard about. A young man in our church had asked me to help him with his senior thesis, and as we discussed various topics for his thesis, he mentioned FOMO as a possible topic.
Now when he said FOMO, I had no idea what he was talking about.
So he explained, FOMO, F-O-M-O, is an acronym of fear of missing out. It even has an Oxford Dictionary entry, which defines FOMO as anxiety. Often aroused by posts seen on social media, That an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere. A person gets online and sees all the fun and significant stuff their friends are doing with their lives. at least as portrayed in their uh perfectly edited Instagram story.
And they begin to develop this sense that they're not having as much fun, or they're not living lives that are as significant as their friends, that they're wasting their lives, that they're missing out on something they should be enjoying.
Now, while no doubt the constant bombardment of social media has exacerbated this kind of anxiety, the fear of missing out is nothing new, is it? I remember back in the 80s, before there was an internet, and one had to actually get in a car and drive somewhere if they wanted to see their friends and family. We would often take long road trips over the holidays to go visit family in other parts of the country.
Sometimes these road trips would require an all-night drive.
Well, I had an older sister who had a bad case of FOMO. Uh so much so that she would make herself stay awake all night talking to my dad who was driving the car. And I would ask her the next morning when I woke up at the end of our all-nighter, why didn't you go to sleep? And she would say, I was afraid that something fun or important would happen, and I didn't want to miss anything.
So she would stay up all night. The fear of missing out is nothing new. And truth be told, Those fears are often unfounded. and fabricated by our own imagination. But what if there really was a risk of missing out on something momentous, something essential, something of such immense importance that to miss it would bring incredible, irreversible loss?
What if there were some joy?
so unimaginably wonderful that to miss it would bring about an eternal regret. The worst FOMO possible would require the potential of an absolute joy. An unspeakable. indescribable sort of joy. whose loss would result in an absolute loss.
an irrecoverable misery. If such a scenario existed, that would certainly be something to fear missing out on. At the beginning of chapter 6 in his letter, Paul brings up this very scenario. He brings up the potential of missing out on nothing less than the grace. of God.
In verse 1, he says, We appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Missing out on the grace of God. would be an eternal loss, a forever regret. an infinite sadness. But Corinth doesn't seem to realize the gravity of their situation.
Here they are flitting through life with disdain for Paul and the true apostles and nothing but admiration for these so-called super-apostles who were preaching a false gospel under false pretenses. Earlier in his letter, Paul described these false teachers as peddlers of God's word. They were peddling God's word, using God's truth as a means for personal gain. And Corinth, to its shame, was buying it. They were enamored with the credibility and the polish of these false teachers.
They were driven by a fear of missing out. Only their fear of missing out was On all the wrong things, directed towards all the wrong things. They feared missing out on the outward appearance of success. They feared missing out on the respectability of having leaders and ministries that looked the part and made a difference and garnered the approval of the masses. but they lacked the fear that should have been driving them.
A fear of having received The grace of God in vain. As we looked at these Versus We discover a couple of reasons why Corinth was in danger of missing out on the grace of God. And the things that threaten Corinth's experience of the grace of God are the same things that threaten our experience of that same grace. Christians of all ages run the risk of missing out on grace. When we have false expectations of what God's grace ought to be and do for us, and when we entertain misplaced affections in our hearts.
So let's consider how these impediments to grace affected Corinth. And then perhaps we can detect how to overcome these same impediments in our own lives. First, we discover some faults. expectations that impede the reception of the grace of God. We miss out on grace.
Because we expect God to work a certain way, but he doesn't. We expect God to use certain means or to intervene on a certain timetable. And when things don't work out the way we think they should. We assume that God doesn't notice or that perhaps he just doesn't care. Paul implies that the Corinthian church had false expectations with regard to the timing of God's grace.
And he exposes this tendency by pointing back to the book of Isaiah, verse 2. is a quotation from Isaiah 49, 8. Paul says, For he, speaking of God, he says, In a favorable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. And then Paul goes on to explain that in Corinth's case, the favorable time, the day of salvation, was right then in the present, in the ministry of Paul among the Corinthians. Behold, now is the favorable time, Paul says.
Behold, now is the day of salvation. If Corinth was still looking for God's salvation, they were missing it. Because Paul and the apostolic ministry was God's saving grace being brought to Corinth.
Now whenever an Old Testament passage is quoted in the New Testament, it's essential to our understanding of the New Testament passage that we go back and consider the original context of the quote. The context of Isaiah 49 is one in which Israel was being forewarned of very difficult days ahead, days of chastening due to their rebellion against the Lord. But along with this forewarning of chastening, the Lord promised that he would not chasten forever. When their suffering became hopelessly dire, God would remember them and rescue them and restore them. And he would do so through a mysterious but prominent figure Isaiah refers to as the servant.
of the Lord.
Now from our vantage point in redemptive history, we know this to be Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the suffering servant. Isaiah 49 describes this Messiah as one who is deeply despised, abhorred by the nations. but he will eventually be exalted before kings. In other words, God is promising salvation for suffering Israel. But that salvation will come about from an unlikely Savior at an unexpected time.
Salvation would come at the very moment when Israel was expecting annihilation. That was the irony of the whole thing. This bleakest of days would actually prove to be God's day of salvation. When hopelessness seemed inevitable, God's day of favor. would come bursting forth.
Now for Isaiah and Paul to say, now is the time, now is the day of salvation, it implies that there are times that are not favorable. that there are days which are not days of salvation.
Sometimes we have to wait. for God's favor and salvation to come. And so we might just stop and ask here: why does God save in this manner? Couldn't he perform an immediate rescue whenever his children are in danger? Why must he let his church come right to the very brink of destruction before rushing in for the rescue?
What purpose could there possibly be? in limiting his saving favor to a specific day, a specific time. And this is an interesting question. Mark Seaford has written a scholarly commentary on the book of 2 Corinthians, and he proposes an answer that I think has a lot of merit. He points out that God often saves us not from despair and destruction, but in the midst of despair and destruction, so that in the very act of saving, God is simultaneously saving us and destroying our idols.
You see, in the case of the Old Testament in Israel, Had God rescued the covenant children prior to their exile, they would have simply continued in their sin. They needed an exile to rid them of their idolatry. In Corinth, God could have saved the elect in Corinth. by sending a a sparkly polished apostle, but he sent Paul. Because a sparkly polished apostle would have just perpetuated Corinth's idolatry of sparkly polished things.
And so grace arrived in Corinth in such a way as to expose Corinthian idolatries. That's how God works. That's how grace works. It saves while it destroys all hindrances to salvation. God's day of salvation is not that moment when everything feels right.
It's the moment when everything feels lost. It's light out of darkness. It's streams in the desert. It's paths through the sea on dry land. It's joy in sorrow, hope in hopelessness, life from death.
God's day of favor isn't usually immediate. It's more often than not the 11th hour. at the last minute. But it is last minute so that we're not merely saved from trouble, but saved from our idols as well. Paul takes the promise of Isaiah 49.
The promise that God will save on his appointed day at just the right time, and he applies it to himself and to the other apostles in order to let Corinth know that while God's salvation might not appear at the expected time or in the expected way, it will appear at the precise time when God intends it. If the Corinthians or anyone insist that God send his favor on their terms and on their timetable, They run the risk of receiving divine grace in vain. They run the risk of missing out. on the grace of God.
Now before we move on, we should take note that God's day of favor will not come a moment earlier than God ordains, but neither will it remain a moment longer than God ordains. You see, not only is the inception of God's day of salvation determined by the wise will of an immutable God. The ending of that day of salvation, the closing of the door of divine favor is likewise determined and set by the wise will of an immutable God. In Isaiah's day, Israel needed to wait for God's salvation to appear. In Paul's day, and in our day, God's salvation is here, the rescuer has been revealed.
But that rescuer's gracious offer will not be extended forever. The sun will set on the day of salvation. And no one knows the day or the hour of that sunset. John Calvin said, As God specifies a particular time, for the exhibition of His grace. It follows that all times are not suitable for that.
As a particular day of salvation is named, it follows that a free offer of salvation is not made every day. And so, with urgency, Paul says, now is the time, Corinth.
Now is the time, Grace Church.
Now is the day of salvation. Take advantage of it. Be reconciled to God. Stop insisting on God saving and rescuing and fixing and answering how and when you think He should, and submit yourself to the grace that He is extending today. Not only are we prone to having false expectations with regard to the timing of God's grace, we're also prone to having false expectations regarding the means of God's grace.
Over and over, Paul has had to tell the Corinthians that he is a legitimate apostle. Called by God, appointed by the Lord, preaching the true unadulterated gospel. Corinth didn't like Paul's brand, but that did not change the fact that Paul was authentic and that he was God's instrument of salvation for the Corinthians. If they insisted on a more refined apostle, they would miss out on the grace of God. Paul goes to great lengths to defend.
the authenticity of his ministry to the Corinthians. Verse 3. We put no obstacle in anyone's way.
So that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way. And then Paul begins to give his resume: the factors that ought to have proven the legitimacy of his apostleship to the Corinthians. By great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. Paul has suffered in unimaginably harsh ways to bring the hope of God's saving grace to Corinth. And on those grounds alone, Corinth should have at least believed his sincerity.
But he goes on, verse 6: by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love. By truthful speech and the power of God, with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left. The means and tactics that Paul used and the character that he demonstrated in his ministry among the Corinthians were godly, upright means, full of integrity. Nothing that warranted the disrespect and disdain that they were showing him. Paul continues in verse 8 listing pairs of paradoxes that would have driven any imposter either to self-glory and pride or to frustration, but not a real apostle.
Through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as impostors and yet are true. As unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold, we live, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing. yet possessing everything. Paul then summarizes his character and ministry as an apostle in verse 11. By saying We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians.
And that word freely refers to openness. Candidness, transparency. In other words. He had kept nothing hidden because he had nothing to hide. And then Paul concludes by saying, Our heart is wide.
Open. Paul's affection and love for Corinth was huge. It was unrestricted and abundant. He held nothing in reserve, but gave himself to them completely. Paul gave Corinth.
The full truth. with his mouth. And he loved them fully with his heart. These are in fact the organs or the means of a true apostle, mouth and heart. And Paul possessed both in abundance and used them unreservedly to impart grace to Corinth.
Would they receive that grace in grateful submission? or would they receive that grace in vain? Paul's credentials were simply this, I have conducted myself among you like Christ conducted himself. During his earthly ministry, therefore, you ought to set aside your unrealistic expectations of how and when God ought to deliver his grace to you, Corinth. You ought to submit willingly to God's authority by submitting to the men and message which God has sent.
Receive God's grace by receiving the means by which that grace. is given. But you know, Corinth's problem was much deeper than mere. False expectations. Their preferences for the sensational, the impressive, was detrimental, but the reason their preferences were what they were was because their affections were misplaced.
They had misplaced affections. They loved the sorts of methods and means that reflected their idols. And that's true of all of us, isn't it? Our problem with the will of God and the ways of God is at its root a problem with our lack of love for God Himself. Paul says it plainly in verse 12.
You're not restricted by us. You're restricted in your own affections. One of my roles in presbytery is to serve on a committee that exists to help arbitrate and resolve issues that arise between churches and their pastors. I've had many opportunities to walk with congregations or a session or a pastor through some very difficult situations. And there's a tendency that I've noticed quite frequently when people are experiencing intense trials or tense interpersonal relationships or maybe just unsavory circumstances that are part of life in a fallen world.
And it's the tendency to want to find a cause, a reason for the suffering. that exonerates them of all responsibility. Or, at least, most of the responsibility. We desperately want someone or something to blame. We want escapegoats.
when things are not going according to our liking. Oftentimes, a person's trial has no other explanation than the providence of God. But We know that it's not right to charge God with unrighteousness or injustice. And so the easiest person to blame is often the person who, humanly speaking, is standing in the place of God, the person who is speaking God's truth, who's giving the right counsel, who's holding people to account. That person is often a pastor or an elder or some authority.
And the suffering saint will often bring accusations or complaints, grievances against the very person who is speaking the very thing that that suffering saint needs to hear. A Christian who Is experiencing a rough time, begins to say things like, You're supposed to be my spiritual leader. You need to do something to fix this, to fix my suffering. Where were you when I needed you? You should have counseled me sooner.
You should have counseled me better. You should have counseled me more forcefully. You should have counseled me less forcefully. We think the bad circumstances in our lives are a problem with the means and methods of God. And so we cast blame.
On the means and methods of God, when in reality, our problem is a heart problem with God Himself. We think he owes us a quicker fix. or a better counselor. or a more palatable word of exhortation. And so rather than dealing with our heart's misplaced affections, we murmur about our circumstances.
My problem, Paul, is not that I loved my idol of respectability too much. My problem is that you're not a respectable apostle. To which Paul says, no, no. You are not restricted by us. You are restricted in your own affections.
Your ability to obey God and trust God and wait on God. Is limited by the spiritually unhealthy attachments of your own hearts. And so what is the solution? Paul ends this passage with a twofold exhortation in verse thirteen. In which he appeals to Corinth on the basis of his own personal affection for them.
and his authority over them. Verse 13. In return. I speak to you as children. widen your hearts also.
First he says in return. In other words, love me in the same way that I've loved you. You cannot blame the messenger when he has demonstrated nothing but wide open love to you. But then Paul adds, I speak as to children. This is an appeal that's grounded in Paul's God-given authority over Corinth as an apostle.
He is their spiritual father of sorts. And as a father, Paul has both authority and affection for them. A father is someone who bears authority. He holds the power in the home, and as such, is to be obeyed by virtue of his position. But a father also has affection for those under his care.
He possesses a natural affinity for those who belong to him. And so by virtue of his power and authority, As well as his sheer love and care for the church, Paul pleads with Corinth to abandon her false expectations of how God ought to send grace to them and to abandon their misplaced affections by learning to love and to submit to the apostolic witness they had been given. Brothers and sisters, we don't have apostles today. who give us inspired instruction from God himself. But we have something just as sure and certain.
We have the Word of God. We have the holy scriptures. by which God's truth is known. By which God's grace is given. And we like Corinth.
Are called to consider whether our expectations and affections have put us at risk. of missing out on that grace. Do you ever find yourself arguing with Scripture? Maybe because you don't like Scripture's answer. Maybe because you want scripture to fix your life quicker than it does.
Maybe because you had expectations that if you just obeyed the Bible, God's rescue would come at no cost to you. By way of struggle, or patience, or disappointment, or uncertainty. You had false expectations. If we take issue with the will and ways of God, the problem is not God. If we take issue with the word of God or any of God's means of conveying his grace to us, the problem is not with God's means of grace.
If we take issue with the providences of God or the timing of God's intervention or the nature of God's rescue, the problem, beloved, is not on God's part. The problem is with our hearts. our idolatrous affections and expectations. And if we insist on maintaining those affections, And expectations, we do so at the risk of receiving the grace of God in vain. Corinth loved those who peddled the word of God.
Because those peddlers gave them what their hearts loved. What peddlers do I tolerate in my life? that restrict my affections for God's truth. What idols do I nurture that narrow my capacity to hear and believe and obey God? What unholy alliances do I cherish and protect?
even at the risk of missing out on the grace of God. Paul will address some of those unholy alliances in the very next. paragraph. We'll, Lord willing, look at that next week. But what we need to realize today is that at the root of idolatry.
Is not an incapable God using ineffective means to try to impart grace to his children? No, God is more than capable. And his means are perfectly effective. At the root of our idols. are hearts that love those idols.
And part of God's grace to us Is the fact that God wins us over in part by showing us the inadequacy and foolishness of those idols. He allows us to experience frustrated expectations so that our affections will abandon. these unholy attachments. and be redirected towards God. and His grace.
I want to encourage you to go home. And write down every situation in your life in which you are finding it difficult to trust the Lord or difficult to accept things that are beyond your control. Which is to say Difficulty in accepting God's providences in your life. Write them down. And then begin asking yourself.
Are my expectations in this area grounded in my own notions of what my life ought to be like? Or are they truly grounded in what God has actually said in His Word? Any expectations you have that are not grounded in the actual word of God, let them go, turn them loose, let go. And then ask yourself, are my affections driven by what God has promised to give or by what I want God to give? Let's say you're struggling with some sin problem, some addiction, maybe, and you want God to take the allure of that sin away right now, today.
Are your affections, is your love for God being driven by what you want God to do for you? or by what God has promised to do for you and what He is actually doing in you. And as you align your expectations with the Word of God and steer your affections toward the love of God, widening your heart, as Paul says, to the fatherly goodness of the Lord, You will begin to experience the grace of God, not in vain, but with a greater appreciation of and awareness of all that God is doing in your life. Friends, now is the favorable time. Today is the day.
of salvation. Do not miss it. Let's pray. Lord, you are So good to pursue us. And reconcile us to yourself.
And then to put up with our fickle hearts and our slow repentance. Thank you for your great long-suffering with us. as you give us ample time to repent. that we might enjoy your favor and grace for all eternity. Lord, we are prone.
to wander. Prone to leave the God we love, but you are prone to pursue us. You are prone to show mercy. You are powerful enough to save. You are wise enough to know how to save.
You're loving enough to actually save.
So Lord, teach us to look to you. Not to our own expectations of you. Teach us to love you. and not restrict. and choke out our affections for you by feasting on a thousand lifeless idols.
We look to you. And we rest in you. In and through the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Mm-hmm.
