BEHOLD, NOW IS THE TIME!
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on February 14, 2021 under 2021 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; February 14, 2021 from 2 Corinthians 6:1-2
Theme: Now is the time to put the grace of God to use—so that we don’t receive it in vain.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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Have you ever considered the importance of the word “now” when it comes to our Christian faith? When you think about it, you soon realize what an important word it is.
It’s certainly true that our faith has its foundation in the past. Ours is a faith that is built upon a real historic event. We rest our salvation upon the fact that the Son of God became a human being at a point of time in history. He lived a real life without sin among fallen humanity. He died a real death in our place. And He rose from the dead to show that He has gained the victory for us. Ours is a faith that rests upon an event in the past that is historically reliable and true. But unless we experience the impact of that past event now in the present, we’re not really experiencing the Christian faith as we should.
It’s also true that our faith has its prospects in the future. The Bible teaches us that this very same Jesus—who physically died and physically rose from the dead—also physically ascended to the right hand of the Father with the promise to one day physically return to this earth. The Bible promises that when He returns, we who believe on Him will be raised with Him and be transformed so that we will share in His glory. Ours is definitely a faith that looks ahead, with a sure and certain expectation, to the future. But unless that future hope impacts us now, we’re not really experiencing the Christian faith as we should.
In terms of the fullness of our Christian faith, we have a faith that rests upon the history of what Jesus did for us in the past, and that looks ahead to the prospect of what Jesus will do for us in the future; but we’re to have this faith in such a way as to have a practical impact our lives right now. Ours is a faith that is—above all—a present-tense faith. It’s a faith in which the grace of God shown to us in Jesus Christ is to be put to work, and experienced in an ongoing, glorious, life-transforming “now”.
The apostle Paul stressed this to us in this morning’s passage in 2 Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Paul wrote the grace of God that was shown to us in Christ; and he said,
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
That’s the good news of the gospel. How grateful we should be for it! God has made it possible for you and me to be forgiven of our sins, and to enter into the fullness of a relationship with Him by faith in the cross of Jesus.
But as an apostle of this good news—along with those who preached it with him—Paul felt responsible to then write, in the first two verses of Chapter 6;
We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says:
“In an acceptable time I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation (6:1-2).
There’s that wonderful and important word, “now”! We believe in what God has done for us in the past; but just believing that will not—on its own—make the grace of God fruitful in our lives. And we also believe in what God promises to do for us in the future; but just believing that will not—on its own—make His grace fruitful in our lives. As these two verses in 2 Corinthians 6 show us—and as the apostle Paul himself urges us in these words—now is the time to put the grace of God to use, so that we don’t receive it in vain.
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I suspect that some of the greatest problems in people’s experience of the Christian life come from forgetting that our faith in Jesus must be embraced by us in a “now” kind of way.
There are a lot of ‘professing Christians’ (and what I mean is that there are some who make the verbal profession to have placed their faith in Jesus) who have ceased to grow in that ‘profession’. A faith in Jesus may have made a difference in their lives at the very beginning. But as the years roll on, they are still pretty much where they were spiritually when they first started. They ought to have made progress. After a while, they ought to have become capable of instructing others in the faith. They ought to be walking and thinking and speaking in their daily conduct more like Jesus every day. He ought to be increasingly evident in their lives. But instead, they’re still immature in their Christian life. They are still weak in their faith; and they still use the kind of language that they used in their pre-Christian days, or they still don’t really know the Bible very well.
And when you ask about it, they often very confidently say, “But I placed my faith in Jesus on ‘such-and-such’ a date; and I asked Him into my heart. I was even baptized.” What you discover, though, is that they have been resting their current Christian experience on something that happened to them long ago in the past. That past experience—valid as it is—hasn’t been brought to bear in an ongoing, continually growing “now”. They haven’t put the grace of God to work in their daily present experience; and so, it hasn’t borne the fruit in their lives that it should.
And then, there are others (also professing Christians) who continue to struggle with the same old sins that they’ve always struggled with. I’ll never forget a particular conversation I had with a friend once. He was a man who said that he had placed his faith in Jesus; but he kept on living with the sins of the past. He wouldn’t do the hard work of repenting of those sinful habits and practices, and of leaving them behind. I remember talking with him during a time when he was miserable because he had fallen into sin again and was suffering the unwanted consequences of his actions. And he told me with tears in his eyes, “I don’t want to have to do all this work. I don’t want to have to make all these changes. All I want is to just go to heaven. ”
He believed that by placing his faith in Jesus, he was destined for heaven—and that’s a valid hope for all who believe on Jesus. But he didn’t bring that future hope to bear in an ongoing, continually growing “now”. I wonder how many people are like that. They place their hopes in what God promises to do in the future for those who believe on His Son; but they don’t then put God’s grace to work in the present—letting it transform them and give them victory over sin; and so, it doesn’t bear the fruit it should in their lives.
Now please understand. I’m not speaking insensitively to the struggles we all have in life. None of us who have trusted in Jesus are perfect yet. But the fact is that our Lord Jesus isn’t a distant Savior—either far away in the past, or far away in the future. He’s a very present Help to us—the one through whom we continually have access to God’s grace. And if we aren’t bringing the great realities of God’s grace toward us to bear in our daily, present experiences, then we will not have received that grace in a fruitful way. We will have received God’s grace in vain.
We need to be following Paul’s own example of a ‘now’ kind of faith. In Philippians 3:12-14, he wrote;
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).
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So then; how do these words from Paul, in 2 Corinthians 6:1-2, encourage us to put God’s grace to work in our lives right now? Looking at the end of verse 2, we see …
1. THE TIMING: NOW IS THE FAVORABLE SEASON FROM GOD.
When it comes to God’s grace, Paul wrote, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (v. 2).
In the previous verses—in Chapter 5—Paul described what it is that God did to bring about that salvation. We were sinners—separated from God by our sin. But He has brought about reconciliation with Himself through the death of His Son Jesus on the cross. God sent Him to bear the sin of the world upon Himself and to pay the penalty for our sin for us. He made Jesus—who knew no sin—to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He has done all that is needed. And now, the barrier of our sin is taken out of the way through Jesus Christ. We are free to draw near to God and be reconciled to Him by faith in Jesus. Paul felt that it was a great privilege to be able to announce that reconciliation. He felt honored to be an ambassador for Christ; and as though God was pleading through him, he declared what Jesus has done and implored those who heard, “Be reconciled to God”.
But Paul wanted us to be sure his readers knew that, if they don’t receive this and apply it in the present, then they would be receiving it in vain. “Behold,” he said—as if to call our attention to the fact; “now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.” Right now—the time in which we’re living presently—is the very good and favorable season in God’s grace. We weren’t just saved in the past; nor will we just be saved in the future; but we are receiving God’s saving grace right now!
And so; we not only need to receive God’s grace through Jesus, but we need to bring it to bear in our daily experience of “now”. We should let that grace transform us and characterize us in an ever-increasing, ongoingly-progressive, present way. As the apostle Paul put it in Romans 13:11-14;
And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts (Romans 13:11-14).
That’s the timing of God’s saving grace. It’s now! Now is the favorable season from God.
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And then notice that Paul isn’t just giving us his own word on this. In verse 2, he quotes Scripture. He takes this “now” declaration from the words of Isaiah 49:8: “For He says: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.’”
And so; here we see …
2. THE AUTHORITY: THIS IS GOD’S PROMISE TO US THROUGH JESUS.
Isaiah 49 is a prophetic promise about Jesus. In it, Jesus is called God’s Servant; and it’s a passage of Scripture in which Jesus the Servant Himself speaks. He says;
“Listen, O coastlands, to Me,
And take heed, you peoples from afar!
The Lord has called Me from the womb;
From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.
And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword;
In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
And made Me a polished shaft;
In His quiver He has hidden Me.”“And He said to me,
‘You are My servant, O Israel,
In whom I will be glorified’” (Isaiah 49:1-3).
God has summed up His love and His care for Israel in Jesus. He calls Jesus, “My servant, O Israel”. Jesus is their King—their Messiah. And yet, He is their ‘suffering Servant’. He died for His people—and was seemingly ‘cut off’ for them. As it says in verse 4;
Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
Yet surely my just reward is with the Lord,
And my work with my God’” (v. 4).
God raised Him from the dead to be the salvation of His people. But God did even more. He made Jesus the hope of salvation to all people—not only the Jewish people, but also to the Gentiles who believe on Him. In verses 5-6, Jesus declares;
“And now the Lord says,
Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
To bring Jacob back to Him,
So that Israel is gathered to Him
(For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,
And My God shall be My strength),
Indeed He says,
‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth’” (vv. 5-6).
And now, look what God the Father says of His Son in verses 7-9;
Thus says the Lord,
The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One,
To Him whom man despises,
To Him whom the nation abhors,
To the Servant of rulers:“Kings shall see and arise,
Princes also shall worship,
Because of the Lord who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel;
And He has chosen You.”Thus says the Lord:
“In an acceptable time I have heard You,
And in the day of salvation I have helped You;
I will preserve You and give You
As a covenant to the people,
To restore the earth,
To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages;
That You may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves’” (vv. 7-9).
It’s not that God speaks to us directly in those words. Rather, He speaks to His Son—and thus speaks to us in and through Him. He tells Jesus—our Redeemer—that in an acceptable time He has heard Him! In the day of salvation He has helped Him! And if we are in Him by faith, then—as Paul says it—now is the accepted time for us!
We cannot have it on greater authority than that!—that the time of God’s favor for us is in Christ—and it is now! Unless we put that grace to work now through faith in Jesus, then it cannot bear the fruit in us that God wants it to bear.
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And that leads us finally to consider …
3. THE MESSAGE: DON’T RECEIVE THE GRACE OF GOD IN VAIN.
Paul and his fellow preachers were ambassadors of that grace. And as ambassadors, they sought to do their duty faithfully. They not only exhorted people to enter into that grace, but also to make sure they do so in such a way as to not receive it in vain. As he put it in verse 1, “We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” We must do the work of putting that grace to work “now”—in this favorable season of the Lord.
So then; how could it happen that we end up receiving that grace in a way that would be ‘in vain’? I’d like to read a few passages of Scripture that suggest to us how this can happen. First, we can receive it ‘in vain’ by neglecting to build on our faith. It’s a terrible mistake to think that we can simply place our faith in the grace of God and then do nothing. We must build upon that faith. It’s our responsibility. Otherwise, it won’t be fruitful. The apostle Peter put it this way:
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:5-11).
But it’s not enough to build on our faith in a lazy and half-hazard way. We can receive the grace of God through Jesus in a vain way by failing to labor diligently. Here again, Paul is a great example to us. In 1 Corinthians 15, he wrote about how he was called to the work of the gospel as an apostle. But he felt unworthy;
For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).
Paul made sure that God’s grace toward Him was not “in vain”. He labored abundantly in God’s call on his life. He was diligent to make sure that God’s grace was put to good use. But even then, we can receive the grace of God in vain by building upon our faith with the wrong materials. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15;
According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:10-15).
It would be horrible to receive the grace of God and then build our faith upon that grace with the wrong things—such as our own good works, or religious rituals, or the ideas and patterns of this world. The foundation must be Christ Himself; and everything that we build upon that foundation must be of Christ too. Otherwise, we will have received God’s grace in vain.
We can also receive it in vain by hardening our hearts through sin. The writer of Hebrews told of how the people of Israel received the grace of God in their day; but afterward fell into sin, rebelled against God, and suffered loss. Hebrews 3 says;
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion” (Hebrews 3:12-15).
We can also receive the grace of God, but then end up receiving it in vain later by listening to false doctrine. The apostle John warned that we can end up losing the ground we’ve gained in our faith by listening to unbiblical and deceitful teaching that turns us away from Jesus; saying,
For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward (2 John 7-8).
And we can even end up receiving the grace of God in vain by not keeping in the word of God. Because our faith is an ever-present, “now” kind of faith, we need to be drawing daily nourishment from God’s word. Paul wrote to his Philippian brothers and sisters and said;
Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain (Philippians 2:14-16)
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So dear brothers and sisters in Christ; by diligently laboring to build on our faith—being careful to build with the right materials upon the foundation of Christ—keeping from sin, staying faithful to true doctrine, and keeping daily in God’s word—we should work to make good use of the grace that God has shown us in Christ.
And the time to do so is now; because now is the accepted time … now is the day of salvation! Let’s not delay; because there may be a day soon when “now” is over; and we will no longer have the opportunity.
EA
