Thanks be to God

Good morning. You may recall a movie that was shown a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, in which there was this space vehicle called the Millennium Falcon. And Han Solo and this Wookie were there at the pilot and co-pilot seat. And pardon? Well, this you're going to see. What happened was this, that they were being chased by the forces of the evil empire and they had on board a hyperdrive and were able to go light speed. and they were able to go driving in hyperspace.

Now why am I presenting this to you? I'm not. We're going to be talking about thriving in hypergrace. The reason that we're going to be talking about thriving in hypergrace is because that's Paul's point here throughout this passage. We mentioned last week In the eighth and ninth chapters of 2 Corinthians, there is a Greek word that is translated most often, not always, but most often, as grace. It shows up in these two, not too lengthy chapters, ten times all totaled. And so that pattern continues through the passage we're looking at here today. While the eighth and ninth chapters of this book certainly focus on giving, Among us here in the body of Christ. What's interesting is we pointed out last week.

Nowhere is the word tithing mentioned Might come as a shock to some folks, but nowhere as it mentioned tithing was something as we brought out last week was something that was specifically for the Levites the tribe of Levi who served in the temple they first of all worked full-time in the temple that was their full-time duty, but secondly they had no inheritance in the land of Israel.

It was the other tribes that had the inheritance and the ability to produce crops. They had none. And so the other tribes were each to contribute a tithe, a tenth, in order to support the Levites. One of the other things we mentioned is right before the passage in Deuteronomy that talks about tithing is the list of all the things that the Jews were not to eat.

And right after it was the statement that the Jews were to let the land lie fallow, that is, don't produce it, don't take a harvest from it, every seventh year. And what's interesting is there's been a tendency among those in the church to pull on this tithing out of context and to draw upon it when it neither has the context of the Levitical priest nor in the context of the passage for justifying that. Tithing is not mentioned in this principle of thriving and hyper-grace.

We in the church have died to, died in relationship to, the law of Moses. And a key aspect of our being alive to God is the reigning principle is grace. It's something that Hassan and I have been studying as we've been looking at Romans chapter 6. We've seen there that we have died to the law, but we have also been made to be alive, alive to God. And the reigning principle is therefore grace, not the law.

In Romans 7, 4 through 6, it reads like this, Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law. That is, die in relationship to the law. Did the law die? Not at all. The law is still around. If you want, you can look up all 613 laws and memorize them if you like. The law is not dead, but we've died in relationship to it.

Why? How? Through the body of Christ. When Christ died, we died with him so that we died to the law. so that you might be joined to another." Who? To Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. There is a reason that we have died to the law. There is a reason that we're not under the tithe as a part of the law. And that is so that we might be alive to God and bear fruit for Him. God intends that we be fruitful. That's why that happened.

Starting in verse 5, it says, For a while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law. Was the law good? Yes. But unfortunately, it simply stirred up the sinful passions. Those passions were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. We were to bear fruit for God, but the law made it bear fruit to death. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Galatians 2 19 and 20 and starting in the very beginning part of verse 20 but then it starts therefore through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God I have been crucified with Christ I died to the law in order to stay dead no in order to live to God our living and being alive to God is critical here and Romans 517, it says, for if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. In verse 21, so that as sin reigned in death, So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace is the reigning principle in the time in which we are now. We're talking about mountains of grace, fountains of grace. Grace is the air that we breathe, so to speak, as Christians. So verse 16 starts out with, but thanks be to God.

At least that's the way it shows up in our English translations. The Greek most literally has this, but grace to the God, the definite article. Why? Because remember, he's writing to people who have a background, a history of a whole bunch of gods. So he needs to differentiate, no, this specific God, the God, that's the one I'm talking about, the one that the scripture talks about, the one who would send his son to die for you, that God. But thanks be to the God. So that makes God stand out from the pagan deities altogether, doesn't it?

Second Corinthians 9.15, next chapter, we're going to see that soon, also have the words there, thanks be to the God. And it's essentially similar, grace to the God for his indescribable gift. Paul is consistent as he writes this here.

In both cases here, the word thanks is the word that behind it is translated most often grace. It is God's own grace calls for us in response to grace him back. To grace him back. Grace, we need to underscore, calls for a gracious response, not a debt owed to God. This is critical. Christians have been known to refer in word or in song to the great debt that we owe to God. Bah humbug! That's a problem. Why is it a problem? There are at least three things wrong with it.

First of all, the debt note, and that's what Scripture calls it, the debt note from our sins has been cancelled already. One of the points that Hassan and I have been discussing here is here in John, Jesus is on the cross and towards the end of his time on the cross, he calls out, in English it's translated, it's finished. In the original language, it's just one word. Tetelestai from the cross.

It was an accounting term. Can you imagine that? The last thing you see on the cross is yelling out accounting terms. Why would He do that? It means it's all paid. It's all paid. Isn't that great news? So, Christ didn't pay for our sins and then send us a bill. Right? And that's the next point. Owing God for what Christ did on the cross isn't grace.

You'd imagine, just to take a for instance, next time you have a birthday. It's going to be 101 for Bertha here. But next time you have a birthday, somebody hands you a present and says, here's your birthday present. And when you open up the card, there's the bill.

That's not much of a present, is it? This is a gift. Scripture repeatedly calls what Christ did on the cross a gift. It doesn't come with an invoice. Owing God for what Christ did on the cross isn't grace. As a matter of fact, if I owe God for the grace that was shown to me, then that grace is not all that amazing.

What is amazing is that He paid That's the next point. This phenomenal price. Phenomenal price. And it doesn't cost us a thing. The verse that we had there at the opening, I have repeated here. The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. Let the one who hears say, Come. And let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who wishes take the water of life. What? Without cost. Without cost. Take it. Take it. It's free. Can you believe it? It's free.

It's not just water. I need some water. But the water that you drink here, I'll be thirsty again before very long. And the way I talk, I'll be thirsty in a matter of minutes if not seconds. But this is the water of life without cost. This is not just water water. This is the water of life. And it's absolutely free. It's amazing grace. That's what it is. That's the third one. Christ had to die for our sins since we couldn't do it. What's it going to cost you to pay for your own sins? That's sticker shock. That's sticker shock. We talk about the price tag on something. Nancy and I made a decision even this last week. We went and we were looking at something. We had a plan in place. We looked at the price and said, we're not doing that. And both of us had the same reaction.

Sticker shock. Guess what? The sticker shock for what it costs for Christ to pay for your sins is unbelievable. It's just phenomenal. As a matter of fact, if you said, you know, I don't think I want Christ to pay for my sins. I think I'll just cover it on my own. Thanks, but I'll just take care of it myself. Well, okay, but that choice is going to cost you eternity. It's going to take you forever to pay that one. And that's just for you. The sticker shock for what it would cost to pay for your sins is absolutely astounding.

Grace does not stimulate, I owe. Grace stimulates thankfulness, not indebtedness. I am not indebted to the Lord, but oh, oh am I thankful. See the difference that grace makes? Christ did not give us a gift with an invoice. It's immense thankfulness. Thankfulness is the godly and spiritual response to God's expression of His most amazing grace. It's exactly what God has in mind. Have you ever wondered, how does God want me to respond to the grace that He showed? Thankfulness. That's it. That's exactly what He's talking about. God is fabulously wealthy in grace.

Ephesians 1.7, the riches of his grace. You can put the word wealth in there if you want. Immense, astounding wealth of grace. You know, you'll find from time to time lists in old magazines and things like that of the world's wealthiest people. And there are some phenomenal numbers out there of what people own. I have no idea what they think they're going to do with all that money.

God's wealth and grace far exceeds that. God is phenomenally wealthy in grace. Astounding, fabulously wealthy in grace. God's grace, repeatedly described as abundant and abounding. Abundant and abounding. No question, God is incredibly, astoundingly wealthy when it comes to grace.

When we went through 2 Corinthians 4.15, look at this verse here. The grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound.

What does grace do when we understand it? It doesn't say, oh, I've got to pay God back. It doesn't say, heaven sakes, it's going to take me a lot of work and a lot of years to pay God back. No. What it does is true understanding of grace. of the immensity of it, of how amazing it is, causes us to be abounding in thanks. Abounding grace, abounding thanks. That's the way it works. Just overflowing with thankfulness. Oh, how amazing is God's grace. It is as if I went out to the mail one day and opened it up and I got a bill from the IRS. 4 trillion dollars, right?

Oh wow, how am I ever going to pay for this, right? It is beyond doing. There's no way I could hope to do it. There's nobody in the whole country that could pull it off. I don't know how I'm going to support the whole federal government for a year and a half, but anyway, that's the bill, right? So if I get this astounding bill, this mind-boggling bill, Wouldn't it be amazing to have somebody step up and say, I'll pay it. Now that would be astounding. Abounding grace. Grace that is amazing.

Now, let's look at the big picture on this passage, and we don't even have to go to light speed for it. When Paul had been presenting spiritual principles for their financial giving, he is now going to talk about how their gifts would be taken to Jerusalem to help the saints there. How are we going to get these gifts to Jerusalem? And you might be wondering, what's this swimmer doing in the road? It's absolutely ridiculous. I have no idea why. Okay.

Central to how the funds would get to Jerusalem was the man Titus. He was the one kind of central personage in this thing. He was someone whom they knew, and there were also two other men not named to us. Two other guys we have no idea what their names are. and they're kind of wondering while the cars are driving by. Paul's focus, however, with Titus and these two other unnamed fellows are going to be on character, motives, and the confidence that they have in these guys in the Lord. First of all, he talks about the heart of Titus.

God is to be given thanks, as the way Paul puts it, for what he has done in Titus. Have you ever done that? Have you ever thanked the Lord for what the Lord has done in someone's heart? For putting this eager diligence in his heart about the giving of the believers in Corinth. The Lord had placed something on Titus' heart and Paul was thanking the Lord for that. Now, it's clear in here that Paul was making a remark. Titus was certainly responsive to Paul's appeal, but that's not really all there is to it. He didn't just say, Titus, would you do this? And Paul, after making the appeal, saw Titus respond.

He goes beyond that. Out of his eager diligence, he was motivated to come to them. And he may even have been carrying this very letter. Since he was spoken about as if he was coming to them, he may have been taking this letter of 2 Corinthians with him.

Now, as we get into the next verse, verse 18 and 19, we have our first mystery man. This is a fellow whose name we don't know. And although we don't know his name, we do know some things about this fellow. And quite likely, he was known by the people there in the church in Corinth. This man was widely known in the gospel among the churches. It may even be a fellow whose name we'd recognize if we knew it. Dr. Luke, perhaps? Could be. Nonetheless, everybody in the churches knew of this fellow.

The same man was actually chosen by the churches, and I think it's fair to assume that even the church of Corinth had some part in this, for this work of grace, this carrying this gift to the church at Jerusalem. Now what had happened in Jerusalem, just to make the point clear, was Jerusalem from time to time, we saw it in that area, we saw it when we were studying through Genesis, would go through a famine. As a matter of fact, there was a famine in each one of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a famine in each of their times. So this fellow was one of those chosen by the churches for this work of grace, taking the monetary gift to the church there in Jerusalem and Judea. And it was clear that the Lord himself would be glorified, not Paul, not Titus, or even this chosen mystery man, but the Lord would be glorified by this guy. Paul makes a very clear intent here One of the things he's spelling out is, as these funds are being taken, he's looking for, we would give the term, integrity. Integrity.

He's not looking for, you know, all of you worked really hard and put this money together and we sent these guys to Jerusalem, but they spent it all before they got there. He's not looking for that outcome, is he? He wants it to get there. He wants reliable people who understand the character of this mission and not somebody who's just going to blow through it. So he works to be above board here and have every effort to express honesty and integrity in this process. It is about how it looks. He wants it to not only be at heart, but be an outward expression. a matter of integrity in the sight of God and in the sight of others.

He doesn't want there to be some question about how these funds are going to be taken or handled. Believers ought to avoid even the appearance of bad faith and also verify the good delivery and use of their gifts. It is a wise thing for Christians to look at, you know, how are things being handled? If I'm giving to a ministry or to a church, how are things being handled? Tell you one of the things here is I'm very thankful that Holly Hills has taken good care of Nancy and me. But I have no idea who gives what in the offering box back there. I have no idea. Not the slightest. I have no access to the checking account, right? And it's not because when they first brought me on, what was that, nine years ago? Today.

So when they first brought me on, OK, they didn't say, well, this guy Vern, we don't trust him. We're hiring him, but we don't trust him. And we know he's just a dirty, rotten, gold digging scoundrel. And so we are going to make sure he has no access to anything.

No, that's not the point. The point is you want things to be most certainly and quite clearly above board. You want things to be where nothing is suspect. And you actually want to take extraordinary measures to make sure that that's the case. Paul also introduces here a second mystery man. He writes of the second mystery man, but like the first one, they seem to know who he is, or at least that's the appearance, and Paul certainly knows who he is. He is a man who was also chosen to represent the churches. So you have here Titus, who is essentially Paul's representative, and you have two of these men who are chosen to represent the churches, and they seem to be chosen by the churches.

Why go through all this? Well, first of all, you don't have the circumstance like we have now where you can get an insurance policy on the delivery. You can't just send a UPS or FedEx or DHL or something of that sort. And so when you send a substantial amount of money like this out on open roads, there were thugs and thieves and pirates and people of that sort. And so to have several guys taking this money who were trustworthy would be extremely important. And so now this third fellow, the second mystery man comes in. Paul knows this man, and so while the churches have chosen him, Paul can also verify, matter of fact, he even says that.

He has seen that this mystery man, unnamed, was often tested and found diligent in many things. A person who is diligent is one who knows what counts, knows what matters, and sticks to it. A diligent person knows what matters and sticks to it. And this person has been found diligent in many things.

He has been tested repeatedly and in a variety of different responsibilities. This is one who can be depended upon to faithfully take the money to Jerusalem. So now we have this delivery team. Titus is presented as Paul's chosen representative, Paul's partner in ministry, and a fellow worker. Matter of fact, the way he puts it, it's all one word, together worker. together worker.

Titus is somebody that Paul knows, and as a matter of fact, we're going to see later on in Titus 1.4, I have it quoted here, to Titus, my true child and common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Here's Titus that he knows and he also knows at some later point in time that he can send him off on a particular assignment and Titus will carry it out faithfully. So these two other men there are seen as being the representatives of the churches who graciously gave of the finances, that is, the churches graciously gave. So these three, Titus and the two men with unknown names, will deliver the gift to the church in Jerusalem.

1 Corinthians 16.3 even addresses this saving up for this gift. faith delivery and safer travel. Good faith delivery because we know the character of these men. Safer travel because there's three of them instead of just one. They were to go from certainly Corinth, and I would say the other churches as well, and take the gift to Jerusalem where the famine had gotten to be so severe. So these three are going to make the delivery there.

Now, with something that's real interesting, Paul calls these messengers actually apostles. Same word that's used for the apostles. He doesn't mean that they are apostles in the official sense, that they're those appointed specifically face-to-face by the Lord, but he does mean apostles in the sense that they are special messengers. They are messengers on a special mission from the churches and from Paul himself. This grace giving is not just to help out the hard-pressed believers, but he makes a very important point. It's not just to help the believers, although it most certainly is that, but it's also to the glory of Christ himself. The things that we do as we serve one another, do they serve each of us? We're going to see some serving downstairs here in a matter of minutes. We're going to see some serving here. Is that all that's going on?

No. It is also, as Paul says, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. It's glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the nature of grace-giving in the body of Christ. As we as believers grace-give, not, I'll do this for you, as if you'll do this other thing back for me, but grace-giving. Grace-giving as He gave. That is the nature of grace giving in the body of Christ. Giving as he gave. He loved and he gave. Did he send us a bill for it? No. Our giving to one another, our serving one another in the body of Christ is to be the same way. The Lord is the one who repays, right? The Lord's the one who repays for these things.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this grace giving carried out. this grace giving carried on with faithfulness, grace giving carried on that will glorify you. We pray that in this very body of Christ here, that the grace giving among us would indeed glorify you, even as we prepare for observing the Lord's table, that it would glorify you, even as we meet afterwards to have a meal together, that your name would be glorified in it all. We bring these things before you and trusting all into your hands. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.