2 Corinthians Ch6v1-Ch7v1 - Whose Side Are You On?

[0:00] So, 2 Corinthians chapter 6.

[0:30] We're going to read the whole chapter together.

[0:47] And then we're going to do something a little bit different. We're just simply going to walk our way through the text and hear what God has to say to us.

[0:57] So, we're going to read it. Then pray. And then we're going to walk our way through it as we hear what God has to say to his church today.

[1:08] Let's pick it up in verse 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 6. As God's fellow workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.

[1:25] For he says, In great endurance, in troubles, hardships and distresses, in beatings, imprisonments and riots, In hard work, sleepless nights and hunger, In purity, understanding, patience and kindness, In the Holy Spirit and in sincere love, In truthful speech and in the power of God,

[2:29] With weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left, Through glory and dishonour, Bad report and good report, Genuine, Genuine, yet regarded as imposters, Known, yet regarded as unknown, Dying, and yet we live on, beaten, beaten, and yet not killed, Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, Poor, yet making many rich, Having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

[3:15] We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, But you are withholding yours from us.

[3:33] As a fair exchange, I speak as to my children, Open wide your hearts also. Do not be yoked together with unbelievers, For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?

[3:53] Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

[4:07] What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will live with them and walk among them, And I will be their God, And they will be my people.

[4:30] Therefore come out from them and be separate, Says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, And I will receive you. And I will be a father to you, And you will be my sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.

[4:50] Therefore, Since we have these promises, dear friends, Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, Perfecting holiness out of reference for God.

[5:09] For God. Well, please keep your Bibles open. We're going to return to it in just a moment, But we're going to pray, And ask for God to do a work in each of our lives.

[5:23] Let's ask him to do that. Lord God, you are great, And it is pleased you, To have this word written down for us today.

[5:41] And we pray, That not one of us will leave this building, Without your word having touched us deeply this morning, Changing us, And making us more like Christ, Helping us to see all that he has done, And what it means to follow him.

[6:11] Father, please do this work amongst us, For we cannot change ourselves, Only you can change us.

[6:23] Please do that. Amen. Christ has given his all for you, Now give your life to Christ.

[6:45] Christ has given his all to you, Now give your life to Christ. Well, what is it that Christ has done for us?

[6:59] Well, look back with me to chapter 5, Verse 17. Therefore, If anyone is in Christ, If you are trusting in Christ, You have become, A new creation.

[7:22] A new person. How did he do that? Well, look at verse 21. God made Christ, Who had no sin, To be sin for us, So that in Christ, We might become the righteousness of God.

[7:46] Christ, Christ, Christ, In obedience to his father, Has given his life for us. Making us a new creation, Declaring us right with God, And securing our eternal destination.

[8:05] So don't hold back. No more sitting on the fence. No more will I or won't I.

[8:20] Give him your all. What will it look like for us to give our all for Christ?

[8:30] Well we're going to look through this text and we're going to see five simple things of what it means to give our all to Christ.

[8:43] The first is this. Receive the grace of God's word. Verse 1. As God's fellow workers we urge you, I plead with you, not to receive God's grace in vain.

[9:08] God's grace, his undeserved kindness is always available. So long as we are still breathing, God's grace is there for us.

[9:22] Whatever our sin, whatever the burden we carry today, we can always run to him and always turn to him. Why? Look at verse 2.

[9:33] For he says, In the time of my favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.

[9:44] Now that's a quote from Isaiah, telling us about God's people who are being disciplined for their rebellion against God. But God still pursues them and longs for their return.

[9:57] So how much more true is that for us through Christ? End of verse 2. I tell you, now is the time of God's favour.

[10:11] Now is the day of salvation. Today is the day. Don't let another moment go by.

[10:21] Call on God for his grace and he will forgive you and he will give you a fresh start. So if you are not a Christian today, listen to God's free offer.

[10:40] Don't delay. Don't put it off. Where you are right now, ask God to save you. Or perhaps you are a Christian, but you've been walking in disobedience.

[11:00] Where you are today is not where you were a number of years ago, but week by week you still come. You hear the offer of grace, but you resist it.

[11:12] Verse 1. As fellow workers, I urge you, I plead with you, do not receive God's grace in vain.

[11:26] You see, to give yourself to Christ is to reap the benefits of his grace.

[11:38] Now is the time. Today is the day of his favour. Where we are right now, Christ has given his all for you.

[11:51] Now give your all to Christ. Receive the grace of God's word. Second, we are to embrace together the reality of gospel ministry.

[12:13] As we think of what Christ has done for us, this is our response. Verse 3. We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.

[12:29] Rather, as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way. We've given our life to gospel ministry, so that others might receive the grace of Christ.

[12:43] So what will it look like to embrace this kind of ministry? Well, three things are highlighted.

[12:54] First is, you will suffer. Look at how Paul describes his life in verse 4. He says, As servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way, in great endurance, in troubles, hardships and distresses, in beatings, imprisonments and riots, in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger.

[13:26] It's going to be hard. We mightn't face these same trials written here, but you can't get away from the fact that gospel ministry is costly.

[13:38] You will be opposed. You may lose your friends. You may even lose your job. Embracing gospel ministry means you will suffer.

[13:54] But not only will we suffer, we will have grace or power from God. To be able to endure these hardships, look at how Paul responded to them.

[14:09] Verse 6. He responded in purity, understanding, patience and kindness, in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love, in truthful speech and in the power of God.

[14:30] With weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left. If we are to keep going, we need much more than effort and enthusiasm.

[14:42] We need God's supernatural help. We need his grace to respond patiently, kindly, gently and with love.

[14:55] Embracing gospel ministry means we need the power of God's grace. So we will suffer. We need grace.

[15:08] And third, we learn that we have enough. God will ensure that you will have enough to serve him and the gospel. Look at verse 10.

[15:19] Amen. Whatever we go through, be it sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

[15:32] Poor, yet making many rich. Having nothing and yet possessing everything. It's remarkable, the one person who changes all our hardships is Christ.

[15:49] He is the one who makes all the difference so that we can say in death there is life, in sorrow there is joy, in poverty we make others rich in Christ, having nothing and yet we possess everything.

[16:10] In other words, if we have Christ, then Christ is enough. all other things in this life and this world may be lost, but we have gained what we can never lose.

[16:25] We have Christ. Christ has given his all for you. Now give your all to Christ.

[16:38] Embrace the reality of gospel ministry. third then, experience the love of fellow members.

[16:55] As we think of all that Christ has done for us and the love he has shown to us, giving ourself to him will mean we experience the deep love of others.

[17:08] verse 11. We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and open wide our hearts to you.

[17:20] We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding your affection from us. We've held nothing back.

[17:32] We have given our all to you. We love you deeply. You see, affections are not just feelings on the surface that change and come and go.

[17:44] It's a deep love that comes from within our inner being. It's being moved with tender compassion. And it's this kind of affection that is experienced when the church truly and genuinely opens up their hearts to one another, where we take off the mask and we bear our souls to one another.

[18:17] No more hiding, but being transparent. So let me ask us all the difficult questions. am I starting with myself?

[18:32] Am I withholding my affection from you? Are you withholding your affection from others?

[18:43] you see, that's why we take membership of the church seriously. It's followers of Christ committing themselves to a tender, compassionate affection.

[18:59] It's opening your heart to the people around you. Yes, it means you're being vulnerable, but by becoming a member, I am opening my heart to you.

[19:13] and you open your heart to me. The question is, will we do so? Verse 13.

[19:25] As a fair exchange, I speak as to my own children. Open wide your hearts also.

[19:38] Christ has given his all for you. now give your all to Christ and experience the love of fellow members.

[19:54] Fourth, as we think about all that Christ has done for us, we guard the promise of Christ's presence.

[20:08] love love. Look at verse 14. Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. Familiar verse, one we often apply to people who are seeking to get married, believers marrying unbelievers, but I don't think, while that's important, I don't think that's what the text is saying here.

[20:33] it's about guarding and protecting our relationship with Christ first and foremost. In other words, we are to be careful of those who claim to be Christians, but deny the gospel.

[20:49] Look at the rest of verse 14. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

[21:00] what harmony is there between Christ and the devil? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

[21:11] You see, in the church in Corinth, there were those who were distorting the gospel. We read about them in chapter 11. Just have a look a couple of pages ahead.

[21:23] Chapter 11, verse 13. Here we have a picture of those who were wicked, those who were in darkness, those who were unbelievers.

[21:39] Chapter 11, verse 13. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ, and no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

[21:57] It is not surprising then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

[22:10] Go back to chapter 6. The people we have just read of are the people that are in mind in chapter 6. They offer you nothing.

[22:23] In fact, we should know that we already have everything. Verse 16. For what agreement is there between the temple of God and the temple of idols?

[22:37] For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will live with them and walk among them and I will be their God and they will be my people.

[22:55] Just over 2,000 years ago God did walk among his people through the person of Christ. Emmanuel God with us and now Christ is present with us by the Holy Spirit.

[23:11] Verse 16. For we are the temple of the living God. If you are a Christian, God has taken up residence in your life.

[23:23] The creator of the universe, the ruler of the world, the saviour of the nations is living in you. So don't be yoked together with unbelievers.

[23:40] Don't go looking for other teaching and for what the world offers because in Christ we have everything. He is with you.

[23:51] He is committed to you. You belong to him. Christ has given his all for you. Now give your all to Christ. Guard the promise of Christ's presence with you today.

[24:12] Fifth, as we think about all that Christ has done, our response is to pursue the call to holy living.

[24:24] Verse 17, therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.

[24:36] Now again, Christians have understood this verse in very, I think, unhelpful ways. People will come out with things like, well, that means you don't socialize with unbelievers or don't do business with non-Christians or keep away from pubs and clubs.

[24:53] Well, that's not what the Bible teaches. In fact, we should be people who are in the world. Remember what Jesus prayed for his disciples in John 17, my prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.

[25:14] As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. So when we are called, verse 17, to come out from them and be separate, it means to be separate in how we live.

[25:32] Be holy. In other words, live out your new identity. And what is that new identity? Look at verse 18.

[25:44] And I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and my daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

[25:55] Because of Christ's death on the cross, because Christ has dealt with all our sin, we have now been reconciled to God. God is our father and we are his sons and his daughters.

[26:10] That is our new identity. We are his children, loved and treasured. So let us together start living as his children.

[26:22] Chapter 7, verse 1. Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, anything that causes us to drift from Christ, deal with it.

[26:48] Perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. Holiness is not some pious religious superiority.

[27:01] prosperity. It's simply the life of God's children, sons and daughters who delight to live his way and in a way that reflects him to others.

[27:13] It's brothers and sisters of Christ going into the world to the messy and broken people, bringing grace just as we have received grace.

[27:26] Christ has given his all for you. Now give your all to Christ.

[27:39] Pursue the call of holy living. It's a simple message today, isn't it?

[27:53] I'm not asking that we remember every single thing, but I ask us all that as we look at the screen and think of these five responses, that we would just take one today, one that the Lord is impressing upon you by his spirit, that is touching your heart and asking that God would do an effective work in your life and enable you to respond to all that Christ has done for us.

[28:34] Let's just take a moment in the quietness and let us all individually where we are respond to the grace of Christ today and ask him to change us for his glory.

[28:53] Amen. Amen.

[29:46] Our Father God, we asked at the very beginning that not one of us would leave this building without being changed.

[29:59] And we pray that you would do that work amongst us today as we have just been praying. For today is the day of your favour.

[30:14] Now is the time of salvation. Lord, pour out your grace upon us that we may become those who embrace gospel ministry, experience the love of one another as we open up our hearts to each other, that we would be those who guard the promise of Christ's presence living in us.

[30:45] And that we would go as your holy people pursuing all that honours you. Christ has given his all for us in our weakness and in our frailty and in our doubts and our fumblings.

[31:05] we give our all to you and say thank you. Thank you for your redemption given to us.

[31:18] In Jesus' name we all pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[31:30] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Oh, Christ is enough. That's what we're saying. Christ is enough for every moment and every situation.

[31:44] Let us give our all to him. Let's make this song our prayer as we sing together. Let's stand together. Amen. Thank you.

[32:22] Thank you.

[32:52] Thank you. Thank you.

[33:52] Thank you. Thank you.

[34:52] Thank you. Thank you.

[35:24] Thank you. Christ is enough for me. Everything I need is in you.

[35:39] Everything I need. Christ, go with us.

[35:52] Christ, go ahead of us. Christ be our power and our strength for all that we need. For he is enough.

[36:05] We praise you and thank you for the Lord Jesus, for all that he has done for us. And now in your power and by your spirit, help us to serve him and his gospel this week.

[36:23] In Jesus name. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hello.

[36:35] Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello.

[36:46] Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello.

[36:57] Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Thanks Johnny