Dennis Tuuri

Uh, today’s sermon text is 1 Corinthians, all of chapter 8 and all of chapter 9. So it’s a long text. What we just sang—what were you thinking when you sang it? “Here in thy courts I leave my vow. In thy rich grace record, witness ye saints who hear me now if I forsake the Lord.”

Well, a vow is something done to vow something to the Lord out of the ordinary. You can’t think of bringing your tithe. That’s required from God. It’s not a vow. It’s different from a tithe. That’s related to offerings. It’s related to other things as well. But this last verse of this song fits pretty well with the text of 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians. I said first 2 Corinthians 8:9 fits pretty well with it.

What we’ll see in 2 Corinthians 8:9 is that we have two whole chapters of this epistle to the Corinthians that Paul writes to them, admonishing them to get ready to distribute the gift that they had committed to a year previous for the relief of the saints in Jerusalem. And Paul is going to have saints witness: if they forsake him, they forsake the Lord and the vows and commitments that they made. And he’s going to have witnesses to them to encourage them in giving and giving liberally. He’s going to talk about the Macedonians, the church at Philippi and their offerings. He’s going to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ as a second example of one who gave and gave all that he had. And he’s going to talk about various financial stewards—Titus and other men. They’re going to go to make sure the gift of money that they had committed to for Jerusalem is ready in time for him to come, and that they’ll be the ones who take financial stewardship of it as well, so that Paul won’t suffer reproach for that.

So we’ll see in these two chapters repeated exhortations to follow through and to be liberal in their giving for the relief of the saints in Jerusalem. This particular offering that was committed to, and we’ll see interspersed amongst those exhortations examples of the Macedonians or church of Philippi and the larger region of Macedon, and Jesus Christ as a second example, and then these stewards all urging on that the Corinthians would indeed pay their vows when Paul arrived—what they had committed to.

This sermon is preparation for the next couple of Sundays—this Sunday and next Sunday—when we’re going to ask people at RCC to try to commit over the next year to commit offerings above and beyond the tithe for the support of missionaries in Poland, Russia, and India. We’re doing it this time of year because we’ve decided to link this part of our financial stewardship at RCC to our annual budget presentation.

So in the past, we’ve done this sometimes during June, during Pentecost, but we think probably it’s best to try to connect that up with the budget for the church in the coming year. So in your orders of worship today, you have a handout that I’ve handed out a couple of times before, three or four years ago, and it goes way back probably eight or nine years when I first developed the bulk of it. And so it’s not anything new necessarily, but we’ll stress the last third of that handout—the points about voluntary offerings. So this verse we just sang is very appropriate to 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, which will be our text for today’s message.

Please stand for the reading of God’s word and listen for how this works out these exhortations for this financial offering. It’s a long text, hard to follow along sometimes, but it is a singular portion of text marked off at that inclusio—beginning and ending about the referring to the grace of God. You’ll notice that at the first verse of chapter 8 and last couple of verses of chapter 9.

All right.

2 Corinthians 8: “Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us by the will of God. So we urged Titus that as he had begun, so he would also complete this grace in you as well. But as you abound in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us, see that you abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others.

For 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. And in this I give advice. It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago, but now you also must complete the doing of it, that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have.

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. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but by an equality that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack—that there may be equality. As it is written, ‘He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little held no lack.’ But thanks be to God, who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus.

For he not only accepted the exhortation, but being more diligent, he went to you on his own accord. And we have sent with him the brother whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches. And not only that, but who was also chosen by the church to travel with us with this gift which is administered by us to the glory of the Lord himself and to show your ready mind, avoiding this that anyone should blame us in this lavish gift which is administered by us, providing honorable things not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of men.

And we have sent with them our brother whom we have often proved diligent in many things, but how much more diligent because of the great confidence which we have in you. If anyone inquires about Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker concerning you. Or if our brethren are inquired about, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. Therefore, show to them and before the churches the proof of your love and of our boasting on your behalf.

Now, concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you. For I know your willingness about which I boast of you to the Macedonians—that Achaeia was ready a year ago, and your zeal has stirred up the majority. Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that as I said, you may be ready, lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to mention you, should be ashamed of this confident boasting. Therefore, I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time and prepare your generous gift before him—that you had previously promised—that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation.

But this I say: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written, ‘He has dispersed abroad. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever.’

Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness while you are enriched in everything for all liberality which causes thanksgiving through us to God. For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God. While through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ and for your liberal sharing with them in all men. And by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.”

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for these two chapters of scripture, and we pray that you would help us to understand them. Help us to rejoice in the tremendous gospel news there is at the heart of this text and help us, in our rejoicing, Lord God, respond with faith to your call upon us. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated. I bring you greetings from Steve and Margie Bicker. Most of you don’t know them. Some of you older folks do, and their son Tim. I was at the joint worship service yesterday of reformed churches in the Portland area along with the Kits Millers and the Shaws. Don’t know if others of you might have been there, but I saw them there and it was delightful. I hadn’t thought about this at all, but it was delightful seeing people that we had known many years ago, and Steve Bicker asked specifically if I would pass on his greetings to you and I said I’ll do it tomorrow morning as I preach.

It was a delightful meeting. We had—it was the third joint worship service in a couple of weeks for me. October 22nd we had the joint prayer and praise service here for Oregon City at Presbyter. We always have a worship service hosted by the local church. We had that for a presbyter and then we had this joint reformed churches in the greater Portland area come together. This is the third year they’ve done that.

And I think that the woman who is behind this and who’s kind of brought it to pass—she and her husband have some relationships to the Nemans. As I understand it, her husband gave reform materials to Ryan’s dad and then also to Ryan. And so that’s kind of part of the chain that God has used to bring Ryan and Meera to us. So we praise God for that. It was wonderful to see Bob Morgan, an old-timer that some of you remember. Roy Garrett—it’s been a delightful time talking with Roy afterwards. It was just a joy and a delight. Mark and Julia McConnell were also there. Got to spend a little time with them, greeting them. Russ Faulk, who, you know, way back when at one of our early family camps up in Washington State, brought a telescope and talked about the Gospels and the stars. Some of you young children remember that? Well, the old man that did that was at this service yesterday and it was just really a delightful event, seeing all these old friends as well as some new ones and getting to know some of the other pastors of the churches in the reformed area as well.

This is good news. You know, I come to you this morning with some bad news and some good news. The elections were difficult, and I don’t think probably most people have realized yet the impact of them on our lives—the impact of the Senate, United States Senate will be the inability to probably get conservative judges appointed and confirmed. This will be a big blow. The taking of the House here in Oregon by the Democrats mean that we now have a Democrat House, Democrat Senate, Democrat governor, and they’ll be able to pass just about whatever they want to pass.

This will probably mean for sure full-blown civil unions, some of the worst laws in the nation relative to anti-discrimination against homosexuals, transgenders, transsexuals, etc. Include an exemption for churches. Maybe they will, but I don’t think they think they need to, and I don’t think they believe in it. I don’t know about homeschooling, but it is possible that the forces that understand the significance of homeschooling and Christian freedom to educate their children the way we see fit—I would imagine over the next few years, maybe not this first session, but it’s going to be hard to win these things back. That we may well be in a pretty defensive fight in that area, too.

I wore my kids’ ties. They gave it to me. I love it. I don’t know, this is going to sound kind of bad, I guess, but the founders of this church, people like Roy and the McDonalds, Steve Bicker, and other people that I’ve mentioned here, Bob Morgan, we worked hard in the early ’80s under similar circumstances, Democratic control of House and Senate. And the Lord’s arm is never shortened. And we passed some bill, a bill that gave us freedom to homeschool. I don’t know what’s going to happen to that freedom anymore. I really don’t. But you know what? I’m going to keep in the fight. I’m going to keep doing what I can.

But you know, the Lord granted the families that started Reformation Covenant Church victory, grace, great blessing to educate our kids until they’re pretty well full grown now the way we saw fit, whether it was homeschool, private school, whatever it was. And you families with young children, this battle is yours now. The baton’s being passed. Oh, we’re not going to go away. We’ll still be here to help and all that stuff, but you know, we can speak, but we can’t walk as good. We can’t do all the leg work that’s necessary in a lot of these areas.

There’s a passing of the baton, and in the providence of God, the baton is being passed to you in a weakened state—I mean in a state where the Democrats now will control this process and it will be hard for you to defend honoring God in your homes or even in the churches, potentially. But on the other hand, we passed the baton of good news that the Lord’s arm is not shortened 20 years ago. And if you honor God, he’ll honor you.

It’s important. We’re trying to pass on to the next generation here at Reformation Covenant Church the blessings that God gave us, and then that you will take those blessings and abound even more, you’d be more faithful than we are. It’s why it’s so concerning to us if there’s evidence of less faithfulness to honoring God. We saw in Nehemiah 13 honoring with our money and tithe. We’re going to talk about that today a little bit. Honoring with our time—the Lord’s day, the Lord’s day. That says it all, doesn’t it? If it’s the Lord’s day, and he’s given us some rules about how to honor him, and those rules were also ways that it turns out gives us great joy—we can rejoice in what? Do we do if we ignore that?

We had a group of kids at our house Friday night watching Chariots of Fire. This was a movie that won best picture of the year in the early ’80s as our church was being formed up. I think—I don’t remember exactly, but I think Howard L. might have written a review for our newsletter, a good report of Chariots of Fire. It was a very encouraging movie in many ways to us and about honoring God in Christian Sabbath. It takes place in the 1920s. And then at the end of Nehemiah 13, passing on, you know, Christian families not marrying outside of the faith, children, our future—so our money and our time and our posterity, our children, you see all these things dedicated to God.

This is what reformation reconstruction is all about. And so we’re passing on. We think God gave these things to us as gifts. We’re trying to gift the next generation with these things. You know, the text today is about giving things away. It’s about money specifically. It’s the basis for what’s become known as faith pledge.

Well, at the head of your outline today, I’ve got a comment about Oswald Smith and modern evangelical magic. Oswald Smith was a Presbyterian in the early ’20s, and remember Poland was reconstituted at the end of World War I. Paris 1919 established Poland as a state after it had not been a state for many years. Well, in the early ’20s, Smith was a missionary to Poland and to Russia, and so we have some commonality. He began a lot of that evangelistic work that went on then in Poland as it was reestablished as a state.

Smith was a Presbyterian minister, Calvinist, and Smith started what became the People’s Church in Toronto. That church—I don’t know if it’s still pastored by his son or not, but was pastored by his son—and his son really made faith pledge or pledge offering, or faith promise, a faith promise I guess is what it’s called, a very dynamic thing to raise all kinds of money for missions. And we have kind of a natural aversion to faith promise because the idea as it’s commonly promulgated is kind of like magic—well, can be manipulated. You know, we just promise on faith money that we don’t have, the Lord God will supply that money, and we’ll be able to fulfill those promises. So it’s almost like playing the lottery, you know, and it’s kind of even worse than that. It’s kind of trying to manipulate. That’s why I call it magic, to a certain extent. Magic tries to manipulate the forces of nature, ultimately tries to manipulate God. Well, God can’t be manipulated.

So we’re not talking in terms of mission offerings that we do at this church about the same concept of faith promise in that sense. But we are saying that this son came up with this concept first from his father, that its roots are Presbyterian and reformed. And we’re saying, did come from the heart of a man who had a heart for some of the same parts of the world that we do—Poland and Russia specifically—and whose heart led him over there nearly as soon as that nation was refounded, Poland. And I think that the father based it on good reformed exegesis of passages, primarily passages like 2 Corinthians 8:9.

And so what we’re talking about is that it seems from the text that there is some sort of basis to trying to make a commitment, a reasoned, well-rational—you know, it’s not a leap of faith and God fulfill what I need to come through with it. That it’s not like that, but it is a commitment beforehand to provide money for a particular cause. And in 2 Corinthians 8:9 that money is to relieve the saints’ necessity.

Now Paul, as he mentions the Macedonians—if we go back to the letter to the Philippians—they also gave money for his missionary work to those regions. And so there is this connection not just to benevolence needs but to missionary work of the church as well to the offerings that were above and beyond the tithe. The tithe is for the support of the local church. And this text tells us that the Corinthians committed to a particular amount a year—said, in one year we’ll have x amount that we’ll commit to the work of the relief of the saints in Jerusalem, for their where starvation was happening.

And what the text tells us is that Paul says, “Well, year’s up. Better get ready. Been boasting about you, and your promises helped me when I went to the Philippians and went to other churches. Your promises were an encouragement to all those churches to make their own promises and their commitments to make money to relieve the saints. So you were an urge to them. And now I’m using that very thing that you urged the Philippian generosity, and as a result of your commitment to now urge you to make sure you fulfill your commitment. And I’m going to send some guides here so that when I come, it’s all there. Don’t want to see it short. It’s what Paul basically is saying here.

So I think that there is a biblical basis here for the specific thing we’re going to do today and next Lord’s day, and that is I would like for each and every one of you—including you children, you know—to submit, if the Lord so leads you. Now, tithes are not voluntary. Tithes are required. But these offerings—Paul does. I don’t speak this by way of commandment. I’m advising you. So it’s clear this is an offering of free will, so to speak. It’s their result. They decide. They make the decision. There’s no amount that God requires from them.

But what we would like you to do is to try to commit something—a buck a month if you’re a child or even if you’re an adult that has real money problems going on at home. Some kind of trying to find something you’re doing that you perhaps could cut for the sake of supporting this ongoing work of reformation in Russia, India, and Poland.

Poland—it’s great what’s happening. It’s starting to flourish. Guys are going over there. We’ve got an evangelist now, Pavle, who’s doing great street evangelism in Gdansk. Things are happening, but they continue to need money, not so much for the support of their own church, but to support their mission work in Poland. If I told you you could give me a dollar and I’d give you $3 worth of value for it—well, that’d be a pretty good deal, right? You know, triple your money overnight. Well, in essence, that’s what we do when we give to work in Poland because you can support a person there for about a third of what it would cost to support a person here. So you can send—you know, if the church sends, our goal is $1,000 a month. That’s full-time support for somebody. So you can actually triple the value of your money by giving to Poland for the missionary work in Poland.

Now what we’re doing is we’re giving this money to local churches and ministries in these areas, and we’re not binding their hands. We’re saying to the elders of Evangelical Reform Church in Roswav, it’s your decision. You guys impose on you: make a decision. You’re going to use that money to support Pavle, great. Support somebody else, great. You do it, though. We’re giving you the money. So that’s what we’re asking you to do.

And we’re asking it in terms of money. We’re passing the torch, and we can’t expect our children to do what we haven’t done. Parents, if all you do is give privately, quietly, and not let your kids know about what you’re doing, then you’re not really passing the torch to them. It’d be like kind of surreptitiously keeping the Lord’s day or surreptitiously tithing or something. No, your children want to see what mom and dad are doing, and you provide the greatest motivation for them to follow in your footsteps—up to a certain point in the children’s life, then maybe it goes contrary. But in the most part, they’re following your example.

And you children, you know, I would love to see you commit some money to one of these mission fields. It’s exciting what’s going on in Poland. It’s exciting what’s going on in Russia as that seminary continues its work and now has all kinds of reach throughout the former Soviet Union across this huge land, continent, training pastors, bringing churches in India. It’s so exciting, you know, that the Bengali people group that Chris W. has had a heart for years and years and years and years and years—it’s why he’s in Oregon—to have reformed people there, reformed boots on the ground, to be able to support their work.

And what we’re looking at now is again sending a teaching team over there to bring a particular emphasis of reformed teaching to help those pastors that are being trained there to be truly reformed in what they’re doing. We’ve changed what we’re doing in India. We’re no longer working with the one brother; we’re working with the other brother who seems to be more explicitly reformed in what he’s doing and kind of more on our same wavelength in terms of financial stewardship and not going ahead of himself and all that sort of stuff.

Well, that’s a great thing that the Lord God has given us reformed men who think a lot like us in India that we can help out. So that’s what we’re trying to do here, and that’s kind of the purpose of the sermon. The notes are there. You can go over them on your own. The last third of those of the handout are the truth specifically relative to the letter to the Corinthians, and I think provide the biblical basis for what we’re talking about.

But I think that I would like us to think of it a little bit broader than just this, a little bit broader. It’s about money here in 2 Corinthians 8:9. And my first application to you today is about money as well: to give as God has given to you. Try to find some place in your budget you could cut back—maybe a movie occasionally or going out to eat or a brand new car. Maybe you settle for a used car, and then help in that way. America still has tremendous wealth compared to these other nations that we’re talking about, and they really need our help financially.

But beyond that, I think the big picture is that God has gifted us in particular ways. He’s gifted America with money. He’s gifted American Christians with money. And so we give that. But he’s given gifted us in other ways as well. He’s gifted us with the knowledge, I think, of how to observe the Lord’s day. And we want to minister that gift to the next generation. He’s gifted us with the view of his law and the importance of his law, and how God doesn’t have to say it again in the New Testament.

And yet, I think a lot of our—some of our kids at least growing up in this church—they sort of say, “Well, if it’s not repeated in the New Testament, why should I do it?” Well, that’s a gift that we haven’t completely given to them: the understanding that this is one word from God and you have to not just cut and paste out of the Old Testament. You got to understand what you’re doing. But there’s basic continuity, and we’re not antinomians. The law of God means something to us. It means something to how we conduct our lives and it means something in terms of application to the civil sphere.

This is a gift the Lord God gave us in the early ’80s as a church. And these are gifts that we must pass on to our children. We must gift them with this knowledge, with this practice. Yeah, teach them how to give, how to tithe certainly, but beyond that, how to offer for the well-being of saints across the world, for global missions in countries where people are impoverished. Do that, but give them the other gifts that the Lord God has given this church as well.

The big picture of this text is the grace of God. The grace of God is the reason why we have the particular blessings that we have in this church. It was interesting. I was looking through this text. As I said, it’s obvious, right? If you look at chapter 8 verse one, we have the grace of God referred to. And you look down at the end of chapter 9:14, just before the thanksgiving, in chapter 9:15, we have the grace of God. So there’s clear markers here that this is one text of scripture.

The subject is obvious once you start to work its way through it: in terms of what’s being said, it’s all talked about these offerings, and it’s a shift from what he talked about before. In chapter 10 he’ll move on to another subject. So we got two chapters on this, but he wants to make it very clear to us by giving us bookends of the grace of God.

Now, what’s the significance of that? The significance of that is that we give our children the gift of knowing that whatever we have to give has been given us graciously by God. We didn’t earn any of it in the ultimate sense. He calls on the Corinthians to meditate on the grace of God to them. And in that grace of God, he’s given them things that they’re supposed to minister to other people. This is what we’re doing in Oregon City with the other churches. We’re trying to minister. If we got good things to teach people about, we want to minister those gifts to the broader church.

It doesn’t mean that this church no longer thinks our distinctives are so important. It doesn’t mean that at all. Don’t misunderstand what we’re doing. We think that the distinctives of our church are very important, and it would be the worst possible thing if the Lord God gives us a big lump of gold in our hand and we think that the reason we’re supposed to get together with other Christians is to throw it away and now we’re all impoverished together. That’s what it would do if we ended up throwing away how we worship, our distinctives about God’s law, Christian education, the idolatry of the public school system, the horrible statism that both major parties in this state have.

Why do we expect the Republicans to be blessed, filled with homosexuals? Now literally filled with them now—many homosexuals certainly. They’re as dedicated to the public schools as the other party, just want to do it in a more efficient way. You know, if we don’t bring what God has shown us as a gift to these churches, it’s so foolish of us. So don’t think because we rejoice in these unity gatherings in our denomination in the greater reformed churches in Oregon in the other evangelical churches in Oregon City that we’re doing this to water down distinctives. Uh-uh.

We’re doing it because we want to go visit other people and give them gifts. And we also want to see what gifts they have for us. They do things better than us in some ways, right? Charismatics have enthusiasm. Catholics do art better. I mean, we could just go down the list. There are gifts that other churches bring to the table, you see. And so our gifts are important because they’ve been given to us by the grace of God.

Today’s sermon is about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was looking at the text and I was circling the times grace appeared in the text, and I came up with six. I thought, hmm, wonder if I caught them all. Doesn’t seem right. Seems like it ought to be a seven to me. You think I’m crazy? I’m not crazy. There are frequently word counts in the scriptures that are important tools that God uses to direct a mind to a particular thing.

And then I went to the King James. My problem is in these one of these modern translations, right? New King James—back to the King James. There’s seven of them in the King James. Seven occurrences of grace. One of the occurrences—now the Greek word translated grace is charis, charismatic, charis. And if you search on the Greek word in these two chapters, 10 times. Ten times for charis. So seven for grace, 10 for charis. That’s pretty good.

And charis two times is obviously the correct translation is thanks. So it’s like a word that has different nuances or connotations—charis. And so a couple of those occurrences clearly it’s “thanks be to God,” not “grace be to God.” God doesn’t have any need of grace, right? So clearly a couple of those times it’s “thanks be to God.” And one of those times it’s clearly talking about the gift that would be given. So the gift is—this word charis is translated gift, but it’s translated gift twice in the New King James.

And in one of those occurrences I think the King James is right in saying that the primary connotation is grace, right? Just look down and uh, let’s look at these individually. Look at 2 Corinthians 8, verse 1—that’s the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. Then if you drop down to verse 6, you got your Bibles open right now, you do?

Okay, so verse 6, Corinthians chapter 8: “We urged Titus that as he had begun, so he would also complete this grace in you as well.” Now in a way he’s talking about the gift, right? Because Titus is supposed to make sure they come up with the money that they’d committed to. So you got mutual exhortations. I mean, this is significant. They make a commitment. That commitment is a result of and motivated by examples of the Macedonians, examples from Jesus Christ, and that commitment is stimulated to production by the men that Paul’s going to send.

The grace of God in this text is the primary point. But the grace of God is ministered through people. The grace of God is ministered through people. Now the grace of God is ministered to Corinthians first. The gospel being preached to them by some person. They didn’t fall out of the sky like those Roman Catholic idol statues of Mary or whatever I saw in Poland. No, people bring the grace of God to us. And the grace of God came to the Corinthians by the Macedonian example. That was a grace of God encouraging them to fulfill what they said.

The grace of God comes through the Lord Jesus Christ and his work. And the grace of God comes through Titus and these other men, and ultimately Paul urging them to follow through, to make the commitment the year previous and then to follow through with what they had committed to do. People urged them to action, and that’s what’s being talked about here. But both translations—New King James and King James—translate grace. And that’s clearly the connotation: “We urge Titus that as he had begun, so he would also complete this grace in you as well.” He’s talking about grace. So complete this grace in you.

Verse seven: “But as you abound in everything, in faith and speech and knowledge and all diligence, and in your love for us, see that you abound in this grace also.” That’s a significant context for us. I think just park there for just a moment.

I believe from one p—in chapter 9, verse one—Paul says, “It’s superfluous for me to tell you about ministering to the saints.” And I, whenever I preach this text, I say it again to this church: What I’m saying here is in some ways superfluous. Yet Paul thought it necessary to preach it anyway. Even though he knew their hearts and he knew their actions of the past. He knew they were good people. He knew they’d helped. He knew they tithed. He knew they gave offerings, you know. I know of you that you paid this building off in six years. I know that you faithfully tithe almost every one of you. I know that you give offerings regularly and you helped this work in Poland get going.

You should take great satisfaction with all these guys and other people going over to Poland now. You should take great satisfaction knowing that you came along when Blake was transitioning out of the PCA into the CRAC, and your $500 a month commitment let Oleg be finish seminary, become a pastor at a church. I had privilege of meeting Ali this year. Last year we had Eager here in the area. Great guy, great testimony that he gave. I heard Ali’s testimony at the presbyter meeting. So wonderful to meet him. You know, a countenance is such an important thing, and Ali’s countenance—the way he spoke and his gratitude expressed over and over to me and to other people there—it just spoke volumes.

And then his personal testimony that he gave to the whole presbytery spoke volumes. Praise God for you people and for you specifically that several years ago committed to give money regularly for the Russian field because that money was very specifically the ability of Ali to finish seminary and now pastor one of these two CRAC member churches. Praise God for that. So in a way it’s superfluous. Praise God. When you know, when we sent the first team and the second team to India, this church not only came up with tremendous offerings to accomplish that, but you’ve urged on and stimulated lots of other people amazingly. So so it’s in a way superfluous for me to tell you this, but in a way it’s not.

Paul said he still was going to talk to him about it. I’m still going to talk to you about it. And I pray that the response forms would be dropped into the mission box today by some of you and others of you would bring them back next week and drop them into that mission box so we can make some sort of planning for these three fields that we’re involved with and let them know what we can commit to as a church this coming year.

But this verse, you see, this verse reminds me of this church. We abound in so many things. You know, I’ve mentioned them—an understanding of the Lord’s standards significance. Let me just mention there as a side note that as it turns out, this is probably one more gift that we minister to the CRAC as we have other gifts as well. I just want to make something clear: that Christ Church and Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow, they believe basically what we do about the Lord’s day. They believe it’s the Lord’s day the whole day. They don’t want people working except for works of necessity on Sunday. They believe the whole day should be set aside. They do feast on it and they do engage in commerce, going to movies and going out for dinner, but they long term want just what we—they think long term that since people shouldn’t be working on the Lord’s day that those theaters should be closed and the restaurants should be closed.

So they kind of take that position that well, when we get further down the road in civil government then we can, you know, repass the Sabbath laws, etc., or people will just do it voluntarily. But the goal is the same. Their tactic for getting to that goal is a little different than ours. We’re saying well, you know, we kind of think we develop a Christian culture, lives life the way it’s supposed to be lived explicitly, most importantly on the Lord’s day, and that carries the future. We don’t wait for the government to pass laws. We take matters into our own hands. We live out what we think it should be. You see? And maybe that’s a gift we can minister to them as well, helping them to move along down that path.

We give given great gifts by God. We excel in all kinds of stuff, and that’s great. But as we excel in these things, as the Corinthians did, as abounded in them, I want to urge you as well to abound in this grace also. May the Lord God grant that this church is known and has been known in the past and will continue to be known as a church that ministers to missions and benevolence needs that come up in dramatic and important ways. I know we’re not a rich congregation. Lots of other churches are, and you folks do wonderful, but may we abound in this grace also.

So that’s the third use of the term grace. Verse nine of chapter 8: “For 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.” So here clearly the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word charis is grace.

Verse 19: “Not only that, but who was also chosen by the churches to travel with us with this gift which is administered by us to the glory of the Lord himself and to show your ready mind.” Now in the King James, this is the one that says grace travels with us—with this grace of yours. In other words, which is administered by us to the glory of the Lord himself and to show your ready mind. So that’s the verse where the King James translates it grace, emphasizing because of the context I think properly that grace is the emphatic notion of verse 19.

Now drop down to chapter 9:8: “God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work.” So you know, God says that you commit to this. May the Lord God honor that commitment by making it so that you can follow through on that and actually even more. Maybe you can give more than you wanted, or maybe your own household will be enriched more than it was because God’s grace abounds to us.

And then finally verse 14: “By their prayer for you who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you.”

Now these seven occurrences, then King James translation of grace—with the inclusio of the grace of God at the beginning and the end, the very middle of these graces is found in chapter 8, verse 9: “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you might become rich.” You see, this is a text about, you know, commitments, offerings, vows made and fulfilled. It sounds like it’s a text about work, and it is secondarily, but this is a text from beginning to end emphasizing the grace of God. And there at the very heart of it, the text emphasizes the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Whatever we have that we abound in is because of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ who became poor, laying aside his wealth, power, glory, and honor to die on the cross for your sins, to redeem you from all the pangs of hell. For your sake he became poor, that you, completely poor in spirit, recognizing your poverty in spirit, recognizing that you never praise God, have to get what you deserve, which is hell. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ has made you rich.

And because of that central teaching of the gospel, you’re to share what the Lord God has given you and given you financial stewardship of. What’s the most important thing? Well, you got family obligations. You’ve got, you know, other goals that you’re setting for yourself financially, but is there anything really more important than ministering the grace of God by extending grace and compassion to other Christians of the household of faith?

The very center of this text is grace. This message is a gospel text. It’s the gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ—the very clear presentation of the gospel—for your sake became poor that you might become rich. And on the basis of that, the grace of God beginning and end is ministered to them. Grace comes to them. Ultimately, the very heart of the text is the gospel, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that comes to us because of his death for sinners on the cross and his resurrection.

And because of that, Paul then feels free to use the examples of the grace of God being ministered by the Macedonians, the Philippians, and the men that he sends and himself to urge people to live out that gospel. If you don’t live out the gospel, he says, well, you probably don’t believe it. If you think that this money you have is because of your hard work, ultimately, you’re not going to probably be very gracious with that money.

But at the heart of this text is a reminder that we have nothing that God didn’t give us. He says there’s to be an equality. Kind of makes us a little skittish—good conservative economic Republicans on Mises, Hayek, and all that stuff, and I read all that stuff. Very important stuff. And this talk about equality and leveling of the money kind of gives us a little skittishness. But that’s what it says. And he uses the example of Manna: how you couldn’t store it up. It only works if you give it away. It only lives. It only provides life if you take whatever excess you got and give it to somebody else. You see?

So he says that how do you know? At some point maybe the Jerusalem church is prospered and blessed, and all of a sudden you’ve got bad economic conditions, bad governors, the Democrats take control of House and Senate, start taxing you to death, and then the Jerusalem church will send you money. You see, God says to have a global perspective of what’s going on in terms of where the gospel needs funding right now, where God’s people need help, to be preaching that gospel in a way that’s efficacious.

And we believe the church at Reformation Covenant Church, the elders of this church believe that there’s still, maybe not as much as there used to be, but there’s still a superfluity of financial riches in America, and that to give to Poland, Russia, and India is to demonstrate the grace of God operative in our lives.

So we have this text, and this text, I hope you’ll go over the notes with your family. I’m—I don’t know, you know, it’s not the end-all and be-all, this handout, these points on the tithes, involuntary offerings, and then voluntary offerings, the distinction of them. But I think that I think the Lord, you know, kind of gave that to me several years, number years ago. I think it’s a good summation of the difference between tithes and offerings and the difference between involuntary offerings and those that are voluntary.

And then the justification for a biblical Presbyterian commitment for mission offerings over the course of a year, which is explicitly the amount of time given by Paul in this epistle to the Corinthians. So I believe that this is a gift. It’s a gift that has fueled mission giving in this church and other benevolence giving as well. It’s fueled the financial stewardship of this church and the need to be financially accountable based on this text, to have honor to God and to show him that we’re doing things right, but to show other people we’re doing things right with money as well.

And I believe this is one more gift that I would have us pass on to our children: an understanding of God’s ownership of our money. As we said in Nehemiah 13, it begins with money, then turns into a discussion of our time, and then it talks about our families. And so this really—this sermon, although primarily motivated by a desire to get the budgeting process in place for the elders for the next year—fits right in with the need for reformation and reconstruction.

You know, it’s got to start in our pocketbooks. It just does. If you don’t finance with the tithe Levitical ministers, then we’re not going to have the gospel preached. Worship won’t continue, etc. And if you don’t use some of your money to provide to saints in other countries as they try to build the kingdom of Christ in their particular region, it’s just not going to happen. You know, Spurgeon said a man needed two conversions: one for his soul and one for his pocketbook. And I guess that’s true.

But I think that at the end of the day, the foundation of both is a recognition of the grace of God to us. This text is not so much beating the Corinthians over the head with what they promised to do, and you better darn well do it. This text is a communication of grace to them that would cause them to abound in grace and thanksgiving to God and in providing for the needs of the saints in a global way.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for today. We thank you, Father, for this text. We thank you for the many gifts you’ve given this church. I thank you, Father, for these joint worship services over the last several days. I thank you for the delight it was to get together with men and women who were part of this church 10, 15, 20 years ago and to rejoice with them and to see their commitment still to various reformed churches in the area and coming together at this meeting.

We thank you Lord God for the men and families that roughly built this house of Reformation Covenant Church. Thank you Lord God that you forgive us the sins of youth and you move us on to maturity. I pray for the next 20 or 30 years of this church that this church might be marked by young men and women growing up with the same commitment to honor Christ, knowing the same factors are at stake in the context of their lives as we’re at stake in our lives.

And knowing that the way to be honored and the only way we’re going to survive in the context of the landscape as you painted it, Lord God, is to honor you with our time, with our money, and with our families. Help us, Lord God, to honor you today and over the next week or two as we meditate upon, pray about, decide together in our families about how much to commit to the mission efforts that this church supports.

Thank you Lord God for this wonderful grace, this opportunity to give. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.