Hear the word of God from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. A ninth chapter and beginning at verse 6, reading through the end of the chapter. But this I say, he who soes sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who soes 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 thanksgiving 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 and 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. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Let us pray together. Lord, give us your spirit and encourage our hearts, help us to see the abundance which has been poured out upon us, a material abundance, and a spiritual abundance. O Lord, help us to think clearly and act properly as we reflect upon all that you have given to us by your spirit's power come, cause your word to live, cause us to be instructed, and make our hearts glad. We ask in Jesus' name, amen, you may be seated. Math is not my favorite subject, wasn't when I was in high school or college. In fact, some of you may know I wasn't a Christian in high school. I didn't become a Christian until after high school when I was actually between high school and college, but when I was still in high school, I sort of learned what the system was kind of generally, and I don't advocate your pursuing your studies in the way that I pursued mine. But I figured out what the system was, I learned how to get by. That's really all I had any interest in doing was just kind of getting by, you know, doing the minimum and getting out of school. In my senior year in high school, I had a class called Senior Math, which was calculus and trigonometry, and it was supposed to prepare you for college. And I knew that all I had to do was get a passing grade, and I could get out of that class and get out of school and get on with my life. And the way the system worked was this, if you did well on the first test, I see some people nodding their heads, they've done this. If you passed the first test, if you got a good mark in the first test, then you would have as an average grade, no matter what you got in the rest of the class, a passing grade. So in the first part of the class, I worked hard, and I was able to get a good mark in the first test. I got a B plus in my first test in trigonometry, and then I didn't do anything for the rest of the year. Nothing. I mean, I failed every quiz, every exam, anything else. But I got a D minus in the class, and so I passed the class, and graduated from high school, and went on to college and flunked out. And that's where the real story begins, because it was in the midst of all of that, that the Lord did work in my heart, did draw me to himself, and pointed at me the foolishness of my ways. But that is another story. The point is, I suppose, are a couple of points. Number one, I wasn't a very good steward of my life and my time, but more appropriately, and aptly, I never really did like math. And I think even if I had been a Christian, it would have been a struggle for me to have applied myself and seen your math. It's just not my thing. But I did learn a couple of things, and I confirmed one of them this last week. That calculus is the science of, in the whole spectrum, or field of mathematics. Calculus is the discipline of calculating things, not surprisingly. Calculus has to do with calculations. It's a method of calculating. And that's as far as my math knowledge goes, and that's as far as I need for it to go. And I only use that to suggest to you and encourage you to look very soberly and very reflectively at this passage which we just read. Because in this passage, there is a calculus. It's a rather strange calculus. It is a rather paradoxical calculus. But the calculus basically is this. Less equals more. Less equals more. In other words, the more you sow, the less you have. But the more you sow, and the less you have, the greater is the reward. For the harvest, or the reaping. That's the calculus here. He who sows little and therefore retains more actually reaps less. But he who sows more and actually retains less, reaps more. That's the calculus. That's the equation here. The Apostle Paul in chapters eight and nine has been dealing with this particular issue, the issue of the Corinthians being faithful to a commitment that they had made a year before. The Apostle is seeking to raise money to collect offerings from the Gentile churches to meet the needs of Jews back in Jerusalem. Who have been dislocated by virtue of the fact that they have professed faith in Christ and are now ostracized from their native communities. They're cut off and they're experiencing great hardship. And when the Apostle first presented this idea to the Corinthians, they responded enthusiastically, expressing their desire to give out of their abundance greatly to meet the needs of the Jewish Christians back in Jerusalem. They had gotten off track. They had been derailed. And the Apostle wants to get them back on track, wants for their yes to be a real yes, wants for them to be faithful to a commitment which they had made the year before. And wants for them to know the truth of the statement of Jesus. It is more blessed to give and to receive. And wants for them to know the calculus that is expressed in this passage. He who soes sparingly will reap sparingly. He who soes abundantly will reap abundantly. You see, so less has a way of becoming more. Liberal giving has a way of producing harvests and an abundance which the Lord Himself through the Apostle promises. Less ends up being more. He who soes sparingly, reaps sparingly. He who soes liberally, reaps liberally and abundantly. Now, there are some more principles in this passage that I want to suggest that the Apostle wants to suggest to the Corinthians as he brings this whole matter to a close, the matter he's dealing with in the 8th and 9th chapters. The general idea is that liberality, a grace in which we are all to be growing as we've seen before. Liberality, the grace of giving liberally produces abundance. It produces abundance. That's the calculus. Now, the principles that the Apostle sets before these Corinthians are three at least in light of that general idea and that general calculus. The first of them is this. Christianity is not first, not ultimately a set of maxims. It is not first a set of propositions. It is not ultimately a set of propositions. Christianity first and ultimately is a power. It is a dynamic. Look at what the Apostle says in verses 7 and 8. Let each one of you 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. Christianity is a power. It is a dynamic. What does the Apostle do here? He summons these Corinthian believers to a certain activity. He summons them to do something. He says to them, let every one of you give as he is purposed in his heart. The New Testament is filled with summons to behavior, to activity, to a way of life. We are always being called to do things. We are always being called to give evidence to the rest of the world and to one another that Christ in our midst is a reality. That our relationship with Christ means something in the way that we live our lives. And that is what is going on here. The Apostle calls these people, these Corinthians, to do something. Let every one of you give as he is purposed in his heart to give. Based upon this first principle, that he who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, he who sows liberally will reap liberally. We are always being called to do things. Be holy for the Lord your God is holy. We are being summoned to give expression in our lives, both to the existence and character of God as holy. That is what the Apostle summons them to in verse 7, but look at what he says in verse 8. There is the summons and then there is the means to the accomplishment of that to which the Apostle calls us. And what is the means? God is able to make all grace abound toward you. That you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for all good works. For times he uses the word all. He is underscoring this idea that God is sufficient for everything, that God provides for everything. That there isn't anything to which the Lord would call us, nothing to which the Lord would call us, which he will not himself give us the resources to do. This is a great deal. This is a great arrangement. Whatever God requires, God provides. If God calls His people to holiness, He gives them what they need to pursue that holiness. If God summons us to give liberally, generously, sacrificially, in a variety of circumstances, for a variety of needs, the Lord gives us what we need in order to do that. You see, Christianity is not maxims. Christianity is not propositions. We need the maxims. We need to articulate the propositions. We need to know what is true and express what is true, but what is at the heart of Christianity is this power and this dynamic that God is indeed in the midst of His people, that He is a living God and that He gives His people what they need in order that they might do what He calls them to. We are not left alone in this. We are not summoned to things without the resources for the accomplishing of those things. I have been reading Luther's lectures to the Galatians and have been struck by this yet again in the sphere, in the arena of our justification. How is it that a person can come into the... Well, it is only on the basis of the finished work of Christ, but because of the finished work of Christ, because of the perfect obedience of Jesus and His death upon the cross and His resurrection and now His rule and reign at the right hand of the Father. Everything that I need, everything, do you hear this? Every single thing I need is provided for me in Jesus. There is nothing for me to add. There is no need for me to think about adding anything. Luther wants to ask this question of us. He says, when you wrestle with the gospel and affect this is what he says, when you wrestle with the gospel and understanding the gospel, when you wrestle with your relationship with Christ, when you wrestle with your relationship to God and what it means for you to be a Christian, do not ask the question, what have I done? What do I deserve? You see, we are so inclined to ask that. What have I done? What do I deserve? He says, no, instead ask, what has Christ done, what does Christ deserve? And the implication is that because Christ deserves by His obedience, the smile and favor of God, I by virtue of my union with Him, not of myself certainly, but on the basis of Christ's finished work, I have a right to the smile and favor of God. What is Christ's is mine. What I need the Father has provided in every respect. That's the idea that the Apostle is appealing to hear. He calls these Corinthians to something great. He calls them to be sacrificial. He calls them to be selfless. He calls them to live on less. That's not easy. It wasn't easy for them. It's not easy for us. But when he summons them to this particular activity, he reminds them that God is sufficient and God provides. And it's almost like he dangles this carrot out there. It's almost like he says what Malachi said, test me in this and see. Test me and see. Bring the tides into the storehouse and see if I do not open the windows of heaven and pour out upon you blessing too great for you to number. It's a challenge in fact. Whatever the Lord summons us to. The Lord gives us the resources, the grace to accomplish. So Christianity is a power. It is a power dwelling in our midst. It is an enabling. It is God himself in relationship to us giving us what we need to accomplish what he requires. Christianity is first a power. But it is secondly a power filled with a promise. We've alluded to this already. It's right there. It's staggering in its nature. Verse 6 again. He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will reap bountifully verses 10 and 11. 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. There's a promise here. The promises that as we sow there will be a great harvest. Now the imagery clearly is that of an agricultural society. I'm not a farmer nor am I the son of a farmer. I am the grandson of a farmer. And I remember visiting my grandfather's farm. He raised sheep and I'm not so thick and so removed from an agrarian society that I can't figure out what it is that the apostle is saying here. On the one hand he uses this imagery of giving liberally so that there might be great abundance harvested. On the other hand he talks about sowing and the imagery of sowing sowing seed presents this sort of a picture to you. How many apple seeds do you need in order to grow an apple tree? Only one. Only one. It only takes one apple seed planted in fertile soil planted in the rich earth germinating and bringing forth life. One seed to produce one tree which produces dozens and scores and bushels and hundreds and even thousands of apples for years and years and years. People who live here in the state of Florida up until the middle 80s know something of the citrus industry and it got devastated by frosts, a series of frosts and freezes. But you can still drive around central Florida and from this point south and see grows of oranges. How many seeds are needed to produce an orange tree? Only one. And that's what the apostle is saying here. Think of the abundance that there would be if we were to sow liberally. Think of the reward. Think of the return on investment there would be if we were to experience less so that there could be more harvested and gathered in. Now what's the nature of this return? What is the nature of this abundance to which the apostle refers? Well, considering the whole of the teaching of scripture, it seems that that abundance and that that harvest which is to be gathered in is of a number of kinds. If you sow liberally, will that mean more material blessing for you? Will it mean more material abundance for you? Maybe. But maybe not. If you sow liberally, does it mean that you will see the abundance promised in this text in your day and time? Maybe? Maybe not. Does it mean that the abundance which you will enjoy or which you may not enjoy but which may be seen down the road? Does it mean that that abundance is material at all? Not necessary. You see, the Lord knows his people. We are all summoned to liberality with what God has entrusted to us. But the Lord knows that there are great temptations for some of us in having more. There are lots of admonitions in the scriptures about not making money. A God. And about the danger that there is in having a lot of money. It is the unusual person based as I would think about it on the teaching of scripture. It is the unusual person who is entrusted with great material wealth because it is such a source of temptation for people. But some do see a great harvest of that kind. And God does reward some richly with that kind of an abundance, that kind of a harvest as they sow liberally. But not all. And not necessary. Is the abundance always seen? No, it is not. In Sunday school class this morning the Anglican George Herbert was mentioned. A man who was a profoundly insightful Christian and a man who wrote over a hundred poems describing the nature of his Christian experience. You would think that somebody like George Herbert would have been well known and then much appreciated in his day for his insight. But he ministered to a little congregation of forty people investing himself as it were. A seed as it were falling into the ground. The benefits of whose ministry are today experienced by thousands whom he never saw. Henry Skugel was a Presbyterian theologian, a Scotsland who died at a very early age who wrote a little book called The Life of God in the Soul of Man. I asked my Sunday school class how many people have heard of Henry Skugel to raise their hands, both of them are seminarians. That is why they knew who he was. I could ask you to do the same. How many know who Henry Skugel is very few. But do you know that Henry Skugel's little book The Life of God in the Soul of Man came into the hands of George Whitfield. And it was that little book that influenced George Whitfield in his understanding of the gospel and shaped his preaching of the gospel and thousands of people came to Christ. Because Henry Skugel gave himself away a little seed falling into the earth which down the road bore fruit a thousandfold. Will you see it in your day? Maybe not. Maybe not. We have a 75-year plan here at St. Paul's. I want desperately, desperately for us as a church to give ourselves to this idea of being committed to particular places in the world for the next 75 years. I want desperately for us to give ourselves away to see seminaries and churches planted in places like Keto Ecuador. Will we in our day? I hope so. But we may not. But as we make investments like that, it seems to me not unreasonable that we may look to the God of the harvest who orders all things well and who will gather a great and bountiful harvest as we so liberally. It seems to me that we have every reason to believe that this little church, St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, with its very limited resources, down the road could impact nations, nations, brothers and sisters. In the midst of this third thing, Christianity is a power. It is God in the midst of His people, summoning us to great and glorious things. And giving us the resources, what we need to accomplish those things. It is God then in our midst making promises, filling this place with promise, the promise of return on our investment and all of it leading to this third thing, all of it resulting in praise being given to God. For His great and abundant goodness, this passage is filled with words like thanksgiving and thanks. The Jews back in Jerusalem would have been thankful to these Gentile Christians for the great generosity which they displayed in order that their needs might be met.
The world would have looked at these two people, these Gentiles and these Jews, long-standing enemies, with hostilities raging between them.
The world would have seen their good deeds and glorified God in heaven. Jews would have been thankful, the Gentiles would have been thankful and the world around would have praised God for the abundance of His grace displayed in the midst of His people. Christianity is a power, the presence of God supplying the needs of His people. Christianity is a power filled with promise and which leads to praise. It gets the attention of the world, it causes the people of God to sing. I don't think that we in our day recognize just how great a thing it was, that the apostle was gathering Gentile monies to meet Jewish needs. He was giving expression in his own practice and encouraging the Corinthians in their practice to give expression to His teaching in the second chapter of Ephesians where He says that God has broken down the dividing wall which separates Jew and Gentile and has made out of these two one people, uniting them together at the feet of Jesus. That was a striking thing for these people, one which I don't think we have categories for understanding. I've heard the story told of Robert E. Lee that after the Civil War was over and he was back at home in Alexandria, Virginia, he was worshiping at Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia and Episcopal Church. And after the communion liturgy was conducted, the officiating minister invited people to come to the table to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and this old black former slave got up from his pew and walked to the front of the room and knelt in a place where no black man had ever knelt before. And nobody moved, nobody said a thing because they had never seen a black man at the communion rail in this all white Episcopal Church, could have been a Presbyterian Church, could have been a Baptist Church, could have been a Methodist Church. But it happens to have been in Episcopal Church and the old general, the great statesman who had fought for his country and who never had his citizenship restored to him. The old general got up from his place and walked to the communion rail and knelt next to this old black freed slave. And together they took communion, a Jew and a Gentile gathered about the one table of the Lord would have been an overwhelming testimony to the power of God in the midst of his people. And that's what Paul celebrates. He celebrates in the last verse the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ who would accomplish such great and glorious reconciliation in midst of his people and before the watching world. Here's the point. Paul says in verse six, here's the point. Let us, let us so bountifully that God who is the Lord of the harvest might reap bountifully that we together at the feet of Jesus might offer praise to him for his great grace. Extended to us. Let's pray together. Oh Lord, oh Lord, work in our hearts. I thank you for this congregation, the wonderful way in which they have expressed their love for you by giving liberally. But I pray that you would work in our hearts that we might excel still more. And I pray that you would give us the privilege. Though we certainly submit to you as you would be pleased to do otherwise. I ask you that you would give us the privilege of seeing our sewing produce a great harvest. Of any number of kinds in our midst and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Oh Lord, remind us again and again that whatever you require of us, you give us the grace and resources to do. That you never abandon us. But you always need our needs help me to notice help me to rest in you. Help us all can notice and to rest in it. We ask in the name of Jesus for his sake for his glory and for gladness in our own hearts. Amen. You are a generous congregation and you so boundifully. Let me encourage you to excel still more knowing who you are as sons and daughters of the living God, bring to the Lord those things which are his, bring your times and your offerings.