 Now our sermon title this morning is Good Stewards of God's Grace. Good Stewards of God's Grace. That's what we want to be, amen. Good Stewards of the manifold, the glorious, the matchless Grace of God. Our text is 2 Corinthians 6 verses 1 through 10. As we consider our text this morning, it's no mystery that by the time Paul writes this letter, 2 Corinthians, he is heartbroken over the spiritual state of the church at Corinth. So much had happened in the relatively short time since the church had been planted. Record of those first 18 months of this fledgling church is recorded in Acts chapter 18, where Paul filled with his spirit, preached the gospel with Priscilla and Aquila in verse 2. Timothy and Silas were there with him, ministering to those in Corinth in verse 5. And by the grace of God in verse 8, many of the Corinthians, the text says, hearing, they believed and were baptized. Praise God. And the Lord reassured Paul in verse 9 through a vision, he said to Paul, don't be afraid Paul but speak. Do not keep silent for I am with you and no one will attack you to hurt you for I have many people in this city. Paul was accustomed to persecution, Paul was accustomed to being attacked, Paul was accustomed to harm, Paul was accustomed to the persecution that comes from this lost world that God reassures and I have many people in this city, the grace of God was being poured out and sinners in Corinth were coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As we consider those circumstances, as we consider whatever honeymoon period may have been enjoyed during that first 18 months, that honeymoon period was short lived to say the least. Paul was then laboring in Ephesus when reports began filtering back to Paul regarding significant trouble in the church at Corinth. There were divisions among the people, squabbles, there was gross sexual immorality that had been reported. There was no immorality of such a nature that was not even common among the Gentiles. There are abuses regarding spiritual gifts, there's false teaching, there's false teaching regarding the resurrection, there's sin in their administration of the Lord's Supper and so-called false converts, so-called professing Christians, false professing Christians in the church are living in open sin and the church at Corinth has done little or nothing to deal with the problems that are in their midst. As you can imagine, that kind of sin, that kind of chaos in the camp, that kind of obvious vacuum of leadership, that obvious lack of accountability provides ample opportunity for wolves to creep in among the sheep. The false teachers come in and they begin drawing away disciples after themselves. And mind you, as a false teacher comes in beginning to preach false doctrine, people are led away after their false doctrines, away from Christ, away from the simplicity that is in Christ and after error to their damnation. They do so these false teachers, they do so in large part by undermining and accusing the apostle Paul, undermining his message, undermining his ministry, undermining his practice, undermining him personally in the hearts and minds of the Corinthians. There are many in Corinth who are persuaded by their lies. They fall away after their deceit. The get-still point between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians where one of their own members actually opposes Paul to his face and the church not only allows it to happen, they do nothing to correct it. They just sit back and let this run rampant in the church, this insurrection, this revolt that is taking place, this mutiny. And so Paul, rather than making another painful visit, rather than risking maybe what could be a full alienation of the church from him from the gospel, Paul decides to write a letter of rebuke instead and that letter has come to be known as the severe letter. So now as Paul sits somewhere in Macedonia, Titus having come to him, as he sits and writes this letter, 2 Corinthians, it's four or five years after the church was planted, AD 54, AD 55, he's just received the good news from Titus that the church has responded to his rebuke and they responded well, they responded with repentance and they've begun to address the revolt that has risen up against him. Now Paul says in this letter, now it's time through this letter to address the accusations against him by his opponents. Paul enters into reluctantly a defense of his ministry for the sake of the Corinthians, for the sake of this embattled church, for their soul's sake, not for Paul's reputation's sake, not for his own namesake, but for their sake, he's pressed to defend his ministry and plead with them, plead with them to get back on track, back to contending for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Back to dealing faithfully with sin, back to rejecting the accusations of these wolves that have gained a foothold in the church there, and back to clinging to the message and to the ministry of the Lord's apostle, the apostle Paul, but consider the heart and mind of Paul as he wrote, what was in Paul's heart, what was in Paul's mind as he was pleading with the Corinthians to turn from your sin? Don't receive the grace of God in vain. Look at chapter 5 verse 12. Paul says, we're not here commending ourselves to you again, as if you don't already know us. Paul says in verse 12, you know me, right? You know my ministry to you is from God. I'm defending my ministry to help you stand against these false accusations. We have to be equipped, right? In order to fend off false teaching, you must be equipped with the word of truth. If you won't stand for the word of truth, you will fall for anything, right? We must be equipped with the word of truth to stand against error, to stand against false teaching. Look at chapter 5 verse 13. Paul says, all that we do is for God and for you. Someone says we're out of our mind, or someone says we're of sound mind. All that we do is for the Lord, and it's for your sake, the love of Christ compels us. Look at chapter 5 verse 15. Dear brothers, dear sisters, listen, he died for us that we should no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died for us and rose again. It is our reasonable service of worship, right? Our reasonable offering, our reasonable sacrifice. Why? Because chapter 5 verse 17, we are a new creation in Christ. All things have passed away, behold, all things become new. Chapter 5 verse 18, we who are once sinners, dead in our sins and trespasses, God has reconciled us to himself. He's forgiven us of our sin. He cleansed us of our sin. Where there was once enmity, now there is peace. In chapter 5 verse 19, God is then, now, committed to us, then, the Word of reconciliation. We're to go into the world and preach peace, God's peace, through Christ, to this lost and dying world. And now, chapter 5 verse 20, beloved church, you and I, we are ambassadors for the Lord Jesus Christ. With his word, his message on our hearts, on our tongues, preaching the Word of reconciliation on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. Why? Why is that? What's the basis for it, right? What are the theological underpinnings for why we do what we do? For because, verse 21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Man, what glorious grace, right? What an amazing economy of words to express such vast and profound, glorious spiritual truths. Volumes could be written, couldn't they? Volumes have been written. Many more volumes will be written. We've got a glorious volume in our lap, in our hands this morning that's been written. What glorious grace we've been shown. We need to understand, though, you and I, just as those believers in the church at Corinth, you and I need to understand that with that grace comes responsibility. With the gift comes responsibility. Paul recognizes that he is a steward of the grace of God that's been given to him. The Corinthians are to be good stewards of the grace that has been shown to them. You and I are to be good, faithful, delighting, joyful, fervent, earnest, diligent, zealous stewards of the grace of God that has been shown to us in Christ. So in chapter 6, verse 1, understanding these things, understanding the condition that the church in Corinth is in, understanding that Paul has responsible to them not only as an apostle of Jesus Christ, but as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul has responsibility to them not to just plead with the loss of the world, but to plead with them. Paul turns back and addresses the church directly beginning in verse 1. He's not ultimately concerned with the personal attacks against him. Paul's not concerned here with making much of himself. He's not concerned with building his own resume. He's not concerned with patting his own wallet, with increasing his own fame, with getting enough likes or clicks on Twitter or Facebook or whatever that is, with getting enough for his lear jet for his BMW for a $500 suit, Paul's not concerned with those things. Paul's not concerned with being liked, Paul's not concerned with appeasing them by worldly means. Paul's not concerned with just merely entertaining them or trying to hold them by worldly means. He's not trying to win their support at the expense of the truth. He's not like the false teachers who are out there peddling the Word of God to win a following. Paul says, we, Timothy, silence myself, we then as ambassadors for Christ as workers together with God pleading as though God himself were pleading through us, we Corinthians also plead with you. And he pleads with us this morning, don't receive the grace of God in vain. Be good stewards of what God has done for you in Christ. Don't waste this gift. Don't squander the gift of God's grace. Consider the high cost at which it came to you. Don't treat it as a common thing. In other words, Corinthians, it has a Paul saying to them, right? Has it all been for nothing? All the labor, all the tears, all the prayers, all the preaching, all the grace of God, all the fellowship, all the discipling, all that pain and sorrow and grief in the process of discipline, all the care and concerns shown for the church, all the sorrow, all the tears amongst you as you've dealt with sin in the church, as you've dealt with false teachers, all the persecution that you faced coming out of the world. Has it all been for nothing? Would you now, at the whim of some wicked false teacher, abandon the faith and depart from Christ and the grace of God becomes to you a vain, empty, common thing that you then trample underfoot? You said at one time that the Lord Jesus Christ has saved you from your sin, that His blood was shed for you, that He died on Calvary for you, that He paid for your sins, that your sins were there placed upon Him, and He bore the penalty for them on the cross. And now, now would you say that no longer matters to me? And you would leave Christ over, I've got to work more, or I just can't make it anymore. I've got too many other things to do. My family is getting in the way, money is getting in the way, other priorities are getting in the way. Listen, all those things will perish, they will vanish, and you will stand before the God, the judge, the living and the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ that is appearing, you will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of everything you've done in the body, whether good or bad. Hear Him, love Him, give your heart to Him, for you receive the grace of God in vain. And now, I'm going to tell you a story about David and his mighty men, David, his mighty men have stationed themselves in the cave of Adulam, the Philistines are gathered together below them in the valley, the valley of Ref-Aim, and they're preparing for battle, right? David, as David is accustomed to doing, has asked the Lord, shall I go out against them? And the Lord promises David that I'm going to deliver them into your hands. So they're preparing for battle, they're tired, they're thirsty. David the king makes, what the Bible says is a longing statement. He says, oh, that someone would give me a drink of the water from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. You can almost hear him say it under his breath, right? As he sits in the cave, man, I wish he had some of that water. David had grown up around the well at the gate at Bethlehem, and so David, I'm sure many, many times, quenched his thirst from that very well, must have been really good water. David would have often drank from that well, and I'm sure we can relate with David, can't we? You're tired, you're hungry, there's nothing to eat. Been on a keto diet for five months, and you say, what I wouldn't give for a plate of lasagna right now, right? From that place we went to, over there, you know, well, David's men, David's men heard him say it under his breath. He's three mighty men of David, and they loved David. They loved the king. So the three mighty men broke through the garrison of the Philistines, at great risk to their own lives. They broke through the Philistines' stronghold at Bethlehem, and they got that cup of water for David. They brought that water back to him. What did David do? He poured it out on the ground. He poured it out on the ground. Someone might say, considering that, all that effort, that risk they took, right, the price that they paid, the least that David could have done was drink it. Was it all in vain? All that effort? Was it all in vain? Certainly the blood shed. What did David say? David said, far be it from me, oh Lord, that I should do this. Is this not the blood of those men who went in jeopardy of their lives? Rather than drinking that in vain, David poured it out in worship as a drink offering to the Lord his God, poured it out to the one who is worthy of such a sacrifice. We can make the connection, can't we? If then, living water out of the well from Bethlehem was secured at such a great cost to meet our need, at the cost of the blood of God's only begotten Son who died, who triumphed over sin and death for us, how much more should we pour our own selves out as a drink offering to him? It would be unthinkable, considering the sacrifice, considering the value of that cup. It would be unthinkable to do anything less, wouldn't it? Treating the blood of the Covenant as a common thing. Anything less would be receiving the grace of God in vain. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty sins. Praise the Lord. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there have I as a vile as he washed all my sins away. Praise the Lord. So what does Paul mean then by the warning? What does Paul mean by the exhortation in verse one? He says in verse one, we then as workers together with him with God. Also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. A couple of initial questions will help us understand what Paul means here in the text. How is it that we receive the grace of God? How does it come to us? How is it that we receive the grace of God? How is it that someone might receive the grace of God then in vain? The answers are found in part through understanding in verse one of that little word received there in the middle or nearer the end of verse one. Decomai is the Greek word. It's an heiress middle infinitive for you Greek guys, and there's a sense in which in this form in the Greek, there's a sense in which you have received this grace in the past, and there's a sense in which you have or in which this grace is continuously flowing to you even now in the presence and will in the future. It is continuously flowing and will continue to flow, and you have received it. It came to you in the past. Think about it with me, right? There's a time that you first filled your lungs with air. I pray you're still doing that, right? There's a time when that first took place, when you took your first breath, you didn't take that first breath in vain, did you? It's still profiting you now to breathe. That breath profited you. It accomplished purpose for which it was given, and you grew some of you more than others. Now hopefully you've been breathing air ever since. Hopefully it's still profiting you. It's a connection. If you're a genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, then there was a first moment. There was a first time, so to speak, in which the saving benefits of the gospel secured by Christ and mediated by the Spirit were applied to you by the grace of God. That amazing grace profited you. It accomplished the purpose for which it was given. You were made alive in Christ from dead in trespasses and sins. You were forgiven of your sin. You were cleansed. You were washed. You were justified. You were reconciled to God. You began to grow in Christ. If it was real, if it was true, if it actually happened, you began to grow. Wind blows where it wishes. We see the effects of it, right? We see the rustling of the trees. We see the fruits of it. You saw growth. The grace of God was producing fruit in you, teaching you, as Paul says to Titus, to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, teaching you to live soberly, righteously, godly in this present age. That grace strengthening you in the battle against sin, that grace comforting you in hard circumstances, that grace equipping you to serve in the church, that grace compelling you to preach the gospel, that grace enabling you to live the Christian life, that grace showing you that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, you can do nothing and all that we do in him is in him, through him, through that grace. In other words, grace was poured out to you in salvation and you've been standing under a waterfall of God's grace, receiving it ever since. And you will be receiving it into eternity, past, present, and future. There's a sobering sense from our text in which we must be concerned that none of that manifold grace of God is received in vain. Grace comes to us. If you're in Christ, grace comes to you past, present, and it will come future, promised by God. There's a sense in which we as believers, those who profess the name of Christ, those who have said, I've turned for my sin, I've given my heart, my life to Christ, I'm entrusted myself to him, we need to be concerned that none of that grace is received in vain. We must be good stewards of the grace of God. And we'll explain that as we go through the text. I want you to see this, point one, really. The reality of God's grace is confirmed in verse two as the biblical foundation for Paul's plea in verse one. Don't receive the grace of God in vain, verse two, for because he, God says, notice it doesn't say he said, says God says. He's about to quote the Old Testament. He's about to quote the prophet Isaiah, who wrote 700 years before this time. And what does Paul say? He says present active, right? We need to take heed to that. For God 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. Now notice from verse two, from verse two, God's grace is confirmed or affirmed in the past. God's grace is confirmed or affirmed in the present. And from verse one and verse two, we know that in Paul's heart and mind, he is concerned with God's grace to them in the future, concerned with the future. At the beginning of verse two, I want you to see God's grace is confirmed in the past. That past promise, that past prophecy found in Isaiah chapter 49 is in verse two, comes from Paul here, from the prophet Isaiah. Turn to Isaiah 49 with me, Isaiah 49. Let's take a look at that together. Isaiah 49 is the second of four servant songs in Isaiah in which God's servant, the Messiah is referenced, Messiah, the one who would come out of Israel to redeem God's people. Progress of revelation, very clear to us from the New Testament, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. He was, the Lord Jesus Christ is the suffering servant. Isaiah chapter 49, verse one, listen, O coastlands, can't help but think that when I see that, how we would pray that the coastlands would hear him today, those liberal parts of the country, not speaking politically, I'm speaking spiritually, big cities where there's just such great wickedness, coastlands listen. He's calling for all to listen, but certainly there's great godlessness there. Listen O coastlands, to me, God's servant here in verse one, and take heed, you people from afar, all should listen. The Lord has called me, now this is God's servant, the Messiah, the suffering servant, the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. The Lord has called me from the womb, from the matrix of my mother, he has made mention of my name, 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. He has said to me, you are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. It's interesting in verse three that he's referred to as Israel, right? The fulfillment of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ. You could certainly say the quintessential Jew, the seed, as Paul spoke of, right? The seed, as promised to the woman, O Israel, the fulfillment of Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Verse four, then I said, I have labored in vain. Imagine the Lord Jesus Christ, right, as he heads into the garden on the night before he dies, preparing to drink the cup of God's wrath, having been made sin for us on Calvary. God, as it were, tides his face from him, turns his face from him, the cry of dereliction from the Lord Jesus Christ, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In his incarnation, you get a glimpse of the heart of the Lord in his ministry to sinners on this earth, on his way to Calvary. He says in verse four, I've labored in vain. I've spent my strength for nothing and in vain, yet surely my just reward is with the Lord. He trusts God. He trusts in the faithfulness of God. He says in my work is with my God. Verse five, 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. Verse six, 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, and here, listen to this, praise God. I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth. Amen. Amen. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, their holy one, to whom man despises, to whom the nation abhors, he is the suffering servant. To the servant of rulers, God says, 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. Verse eight, thus says the Lord, in an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. When did this come about? Came about at the cross, as Jesus Christ paid the penalty due to the sins of his people. In an acceptable time I have heard you, in the day of salvation I have helped you. I will preserve you, God says. He will not abandon the soul of his son to sheol, normally let his holy one see corruption, and God says, I will give you as a covenant to the people to restore the earth. That's where we're headed, right? To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages, God will give his servant, his only begotten son, in purchase of the new covenant. It was in the upper room on the night before his death that Jesus told his disciples, the cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Jesus Christ secured that covenant with his shedding of his own blood. As we consider that text in Isaiah 49, turn back with me now to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Paul takes that promise of new covenant grace from the past, Isaiah chapter 49. The promise of God. He confirms it by quoting this text and then applies it to the professing believers in Corinth in the present. Listen to what Paul says there, verse 2. Behold now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation. Paul is essentially saying by handling the text in this way, that the promise of God in Isaiah, that glorious promise when the Messiah would raise up the tribes of Jacob, when he would come as the light to the Gentiles and bring salvation to the ends of the earth, that time Paul says is now. In other words, that day, not a moment in time, not a flash in time only, but a time period that lasts from the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the time of the preaching of the gospel now in which God pours out his salvation. Now is the accepted time. That time being fulfilled in the ministry of Paul as he preaches the gospel in Corinth. That time being fulfilled in the ministry of this church today as we preach the gospel to you. Now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation. God's promised grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, his servant, is being poured out now. Now is the time of God's favor, the acceptable time. Now is the time when you must forsake your sin. Now is when you must turn from sin to trust Christ alone. Now is the time when you repent and believe the gospel. Paul emphasizes the urgency, the importance of that understanding by twice using the word behold in verse two. I can imagine the apostle Paul right bellowing these words in the open air as he was preaching. Wake up you slumbering sinner. You who are dead spiritually, wake up, open your eyes you blind sinner, open your ears you deaf sinner. You are spiritually dead and he says to you wake up, behold now is the accepted time. Speak the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. God says my spirit will not always strive with man. My spirit will not strive with man forever. Behold now is the day of salvation. There's an urgency to these words, behold, means listen up, pay attention. There is a demand placed upon you. God even now pouring out his grace in the preaching of the gospel. There is forgiveness of sins now in Christ. The thing which you most need is being offered to you now in the preaching of God's word. Offered to you now from the pages of scripture. Don't receive it in vain. Don't squander away. Don't turn a blind eye or a deaf ear. Work isn't that important. Whatever else is going on in your mind is not that important. It is not that. I can say that with complete confidence in Christ. There's nothing more important than your soul. There's nothing more important than the glory of God and salvation, the salvation of his people. God gave everything to redeem his people, including his only begotten son. We must pay attention. The world isn't a slumber, right? How many people do you witness to and they're just, they don't get it. There's a veil over their heart, a veil over their minds. That veil must be lifted by the spirit in the preaching of the word of God. That's why you and I have to preach it. Your soul should be your primary concern. Money is not important. Family is not that important. Not as important as this. Health isn't as important as this. That girlfriend, that boyfriend, whatever you have in this world that you don't want to let go of. It isn't. It is not as important as your soul. You treat your soul as if you're grasping oil with your hands. It just slips through your fingers at the end of your life and it's gone. Take heed to how you hear. Take heed to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. There's so many ways in which this grace is received in vain. Do you see? Consider how past grace, there's so much time bound here, right? What's up in verse one and verse two? Consider how past grace is received in vain. If you're lost, if you've never turned from your sin to trust Christ alone for salvation, if you've never entrusted all that you are to him, if you're not following him as Lord, then you have received, so far to this point, you have received the grace of God to you in vain. If you fail to respond to the call of God in the gospel, then you are even now. If you're rebelling in your heart and mind, if you're arguing with the text of Scripture right now, arguing with these spiritual truths that transcend worldly wisdom, if you're arguing in your heart and mind even now, you're receiving the grace of God in vain. You may say today, right, as many surely did in the church at Corinth, you may say to yourself, I know I'm saved. Back in that day, I did this thing, did that thing, prayed that prayer, and I know the Bible teaches that I can't lose my salvation. And listen, that's true. If you're genuinely in Christ, you can't lose your salvation. Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. I give them eternal. How eternal is it if you can lose it? I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. And yet as you sit here today, if you take honest inventory of your heart, don't let that wicked deceitful heart self-justify you. Don't let it deceive you. Take honest inventory of your heart. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Heart, soul, mind, and strength? Maybe you sit here today and you say, I know I'm saved and you're enslaved to your sin. Your heart is dead to the things of God. This doesn't move you. You have no abiding love for reading and meditating on His Word. Just a dead ritual to you if you do it at all. You have no abiding love for knowing Him, for speaking after Him. You have no hunger and thirst in your heart for righteousness? The false professing Christian receives the grace of God in vain when he fails to truly and genuinely repent and believe in Christ. You will be among the many in that day who will say to him, Lord, Lord, did I go to church every Sunday? Did I fellowship with God's people on occasion? Wasn't I there when they needed help with the move? Wasn't I there when they needed a meal for the right? Didn't I sit under the preaching of your Word? Didn't I put on a good show? Didn't I put on a good face? Didn't I go Sunday in and Sunday out? And yet you have received the grace of God in vain. If that's you, turn from your sin now. You know, it's preaching like this from the Word of God, right? That we hear on a regular basis. There's no grace in it. Where's the grace in that? Are you kidding me? Listen to the grace of God, that you and I wicked sinners. Now, if you don't think that's gracious for someone to call you a wicked sinner, well, then you have a problem with the Bible. You have a problem with God's diagnosis of you. But you and I wicked sinners who continue, even those of us in Christ, amen, we still battle with the flesh. Our best prayers have enough sin in them, Bunyan said, to damn the world. And yet we don't think it's gracious that the truth of that is preached to us. And as we know it, as we recognize it, as we acknowledge that, to know that God still in Christ lavishes grace upon us so that we can be His forever. Right? Amazing grace. But we only understand that grace in the context truly. We only understand it truly in the context of our own sin and depravity. Both truths must be understood, must be acknowledged. Maybe you profess to know Christ, but you haven't persevered. You said I was seven, eight, 12, maybe you were 20, maybe you were 30. Maybe it was last year. You said I'm a Christian. Lord, have saved me. I'm forgiven of my sin. The blood of Christ applies to me. And then you have fallen away from your profession. You have not persevered in the faith. Be sure that if you do not persevere in the faith, you are never truly saved to begin with. You have received the grace of God in vain. Someone says that I prayed to receive Christ when I was seven. And maybe for a period of time as a child being obedient to your parents, you were relatively moral. Then when you get to high school, you fall into sin. When you get into college, you fall into more sin. You get into adult life and you fall into more sin. There's been a pattern of unfaithfulness, a pattern in departing from the living God, a pattern of not concerning yourself with the things of God. You have received the grace of God in vain. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 2, you are saved if, Paul says, you hold fast that word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain. If you don't hold fast, your profession of faith is in vain. You have believed in vain. You've received the grace of God in vain. Turn from your sins now. Trust Christ now and be saved. Don't deceive yourselves. The one who practices righteousness is righteous just as he is righteous. The one who sins is of the devil. Don't deceive yourselves. There were those in Corinth who were receiving the grace of God in vain. Paul's concern here in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, beginning in verse 1, there were those in Corinth who were not genuinely converted. They may have heard the word preach to them at one point, right? And like those false professing Christians of Matthew 13, maybe at that beginning point when they first received the word, they immediately received it with joy, right? They spring up, there's joy. I'm a Christian. I've been forgiven by sins. They become members of the church. They're serving with you. They're singing with you. But when times get tough, when the accusations in Corinth begin to fly, when a deceiving wolf false teacher entices them with a message they'd rather hear, a message that tickles their ear, maybe they've heard a message, a perspective, if you will, of Christianity. It says it's okay to not be that committed. I'd rather go somewhere where I can just sort of add my Christianity to whatever else is going on in my life. I've got a lot of stuff going on in the middle of the week. So I want to go somewhere where I can go to church on Sunday. That's what I believe about the Christian life. And you've got someone in that pulpit telling you, that's the case. You're enticed away by no accountability. Got other things going on? More things that are important to me. Don't meddle in by business. I'm fine, I believe. I believe, I believe, I believe. When tribulation or persecution arises, when the cares of this world press in, because they have no genuine root in themselves, they endure only for a while and they stumble and they fall. It reveals that they were never really, truly born again to begin with. Hebrews chapter three, verse 14, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. So what about you this morning? What about you this morning? Have you received the grace of God in vain? Be a good steward of the grace of God. Take heed how you hear. Will you be a Judas? Judas sat under the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Will you be a Simon Magus? Will you be an Ananias, a Sapphira? Will you be a Demus? Will you be one of those hard-hearted Pharisees? Hebrews chapter two, verse one, we must give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard lest we drift away. That is not a fictional hypothetical, right? That's a warning from the Lord. Take earnest heed to the things we have heard. Does that mean we can lose our salvation? No, it's clearly established in the Bible. The issue is, are you genuinely His to begin with? Don't drift away. God uses means, right? And He uses means of these warnings and He uses means of grace to hold His people in the faith, to preserve them in the faith. If you receive the grace of those means in vain, you can drift away. Let me give you an example of what this looks like. Turn with me to Jeremiah 36. Jeremiah 36. Jeremiah 36, we have an example here in the account of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah. Jeremiah is prophesying against Jehoiakim in the kingdom. He's prophesying of soon deliverance into captivity, prophesying judgment. It's the beginning in verse 20. Look what it says here, of king Jehoiakim. He went to the king, into the court, but they stored the scroll in the chamber of Elisama, the scribe, and told all the words in the hearing of the king. This is the scroll of the prophecy of Jeremiah to the king. Verse 21. So the king sent Jehoiakim to bring the scroll and he took it from Elisama, the scribe's chamber. And Jehoiakim read it in the hearing of the king and in the hearing of all the princes who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month with a fire burning on the hearth before him. And it happened when Jehoiakim had read three or four columns of the scroll that the king cut it with the scribe's knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Now imagine the scene if you're there, right? The scroll of Jeremiah. This is the word of God. This is the word of God. As the word of God is read, Jehoiakim cuts off a section with his knife. You almost see him smacking his gum while he's doing it and tosses the word of God into the fire. Verse 24, yet they were not afraid. Nor did they care their garments. The king or any of his servants who heard all these words. They weren't afraid of the words on the scroll. They didn't care their garments or their sin. And they weren't concerned with what they were doing to the word of God. Nevertheless, Eleanathan, Deliah, Nehmeriah implored the king not to burn the scroll, but he would not listen to them. He says, if Paul was saying, don't take the grace of God in vain, right? Don't burn the scroll in your hearts and minds. He wouldn't listen. Verse 26, and the king commanded, Jeremiah, the king's son, Saraiah, the son of Azrael, and Shelemiah, the son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch, the scribe, and Jeremiah, the prophet. But the Lord hid them. Rather than weeping over their sin, rather than acknowledging God for the grace that he was showing them and bringing them the word of Jeremiah, this wicked king wants to arrest Jeremiah and kill him taking the grace of God in vain, right? And so you say to yourself, I'm not ripping pages out of my Bible and burning them on a hearth as they are read to me, which might as well be if you leave it sitting under the coffee table week after week and never read it. It's a closed book to you. What good is it to you? This is the grace of God. You can go on the internet and you can find, I can't even count them, the number of translations of the Bible available. The number of things written about the Bible, the volumes and the volumes and the volumes, God's manifold grace to his people. We've been given so much light. It is blinding in glory. And yet we walk around with some absolute, darkest shade of sunglasses you can find so that it won't penetrate. You might as well be burning it in the fire. Back in 2nd Corinthians chapter six, I want you to see though that in applying Isaiah chapter 49, that text from the suffering servant in Isaiah 49, in applying that text to the present spiritual condition of those at Corinth, Paul strongly emphasizes the concern for the present conditions on the ground there, so to speak. In other words, verse two, 2nd Corinthians chapter six, verse two expresses a present concern for how we interact with the grace of God in Christ. Look at verse one, Paul says, we then as workers together with him, we also plead with you, present active indicative, we plead ongoing continuously, we 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, now present is the accepted time, behold now present is the day of salvation. You can receive the grace of God in vain when you fail to truly receive it as it comes to you in the gospel. You wind up a false professing Christian, one who falls away, you may go all the way as pilgrims progress, right? All the way to the celestial city and find that next to the doorway into the celestial city, there's even yet there a doorway which leads to hell. You can receive the grace of God in vain when you fail to live in light of that grace in your Christian life. There is a past sense in which we can take the grace of God in vain, receive it in vain, and there's a present sense in which we can receive the grace of God in vain. In the church at Corinth, there certainly were those who were deceived disciples, those who were false professing Christians, certainly that's the case. There were others, however, who had been truly saved, genuine brothers, genuine sisters, having a hard time in the church at Corinth. God had past tense in an acceptable time. In the day of their salvation, God had past tense come to them and he had poured out his saving grace upon them. Paul says to them, having considered that's the fact, you have been saved past tense by grace. Paul says to them, now is the accepted time for God's grace as well. Now is the day for repentance. Now is the day for faith. If you have trailed away from God, if you've trailed off after these false apostles, if you've trailed off into your sin, turn back now at Paul's rebuke. It is the grace of God. Don't take the grace of God to you in vain. What are you doing with the grace of God right now? Don't receive it in vain. When you turn from your sin to entrust yourself to the grace of God in Christ, he who knew no sin was made sin for me so that I could become the righteousness of God in him. Justifying grace pours into your heart, right? Saving grace transforms your heart, changes your desires, changes your affections, changes the way that you think, makes of you a new creation and reconciles you to God. However, however, that grace that comes to you in that saving way never, never leaves you there. Never leaves you there. One pastor used this illustration from the Puritan, John Engel James. Listen to this. Imagine a man in prison under sentence of death. And at the same time, he is dangerously ill with fever. If the Supreme Court should pardon him, that is still not enough for his safety and happiness for soon he will die of his disease, do you see? That sickness has to be cured if he is going to live. On the other hand, if the doctor should cure his disease, it is going to be of little consequence unless the Supreme Court gives him a reprieve. We need both, don't we? He might get better physically, but what good is that if he must soon experience the lethal injection? Of course, you may get better morally, you may clean your act up, you may put on a good show, what put on the face of the hypocrite. What good is all that if you die by lethal injection? What James is saying? Only, only, only if he is both pardoned and cured, will he be completely saved. There are those who say, who say, right, I'm saved. I'm not being sanctified. I'm not growing, I'm not maturing. I'm not growing in holiness. Rest assured, you're not saved. Those who are saved are those who are sanctified, right? Two distinct things, salvation and sanctification, but they are married together. No man can perish under that which God has married together. Sanctification follows salvation. So it is with us, James says, the grace that truly justifies us must be a grace that also sanctifies us or we have received that grace in vain. Time of grace is not past. Time of grace is present. People all over the world right now that need to be saved. The Lord has, as the Lord has said before, right? The Lord has many in this city. If will, but go out and preach to them, the Lord will save them too. He is faithful to his word. He will gather in his elect. It has given us the gracious and merciful responsibility. The lofty and high position as ambassadors of Christ to preach the gospel now is the day of his saving and sanctifying grace. You're here today. You say, I'm saved. I've seen a work of grace in my heart. I know it's not accomplished by me. I've been changed. I'm not the person that I once was. I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I'm very now even more well acquainted with my sin and I despise it from the heart. If it were possible to rip open my breasts without anesthetics and rip from me the sin that dwells there, I'd be happy to have it done. But if you're here this morning, then you can claim that by the grace of God. And the day of God's grace to you has not passed. He still pours it out upon you. Don't receive it in vain. Don't receive it in vain. Don't neglect it. Don't reject it. In 2 Corinthians 6 verses one and two, there is past grace. We need to be concerned about that. There is present grace. Certainly need to be concerned about that. But there's also a future concern, a future concern. Will you now, and going forward, avail yourself of the grace of God in Christ? So many ways, so many ways that we can receive the grace of God in vain. So many ways that this text can be applied to us. When the word of God is being preached here and you neglect that. When the word of God is being taught here and you won't give it a hearing. When your brothers and sisters gather here to serve the Lord and you don't gather together with them. When the people of God gather in fellowship and you miss it. When the people of God gather for worship. You're in and out when you come and you don't take heed to how you hear. When you don't allow the spirit of God to break your heart over your sin. When you don't humble yourselves at the preaching of God's word. When you don't turn at his rebuke. All these ways in which we receive the grace of God in vain. When you fail in applying the means of grace that God has provided to battle your sin. There's no mystery in this. There's no silver bullet. God has given us, told us clearly and it's simple and good and holy and righteous and just. When you don't avail yourself of the means of his word. When you don't avail yourself of the grace of God in prayer. When you don't avail yourself of meditation on God's word. When you don't avail yourself of that sharpening iron from another brother. You are receiving the grace that God has provided for you in vain. Romans chapter five verse one. Therefore having been justified by faith. Having been past tense justified by faith. We have present tense peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in hope future of the glory of God. Hebrews four, my brother referenced it this morning. The word of God preached to them as it was preached to us did not profit to them because they did not mix with it faith in God for his promises to them. They received the word of God in vain. Will you fail to labor for the Lord in ministry? I am too busy. I've got too much going on. Your priorities are wrong. Will you fail to labor for the Lord in ministry? Ephesians chapter three verse two. Paul says to the church of Ephesus, you have heard of the dispensation of grace which God has given to me for you. Paul says, I've been given grace by God for you for the church of Ephesus. Obviously for all of these churches and my application for us, praise the Lord. But flip back just a couple of pages to first Corinthians 15. First Corinthians 15. What did Paul do with that grace? First Corinthians 15 verse nine. For I am the least of the apostles, Paul said, 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. God has poured out his grace upon me and I am what I am. I've been given a ministry, right? I've been given a responsibility because God, excuse me, God has poured out his grace upon me. I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. Now Paul doesn't say, right? He doesn't say, yeah, I worked and I worked and look at what I did as if it were all Paul. As if it were all in his strength, all according to his power, no, no. But Paul knew that God dispensed his grace to Paul. Paul trusted in that. Paul supplied, or God supplied all that Paul needed. Paul says, God is the one who makes us adequate, sufficient to the task. God has dispensed his grace to me and that grace to me was not in vain. Why? But I labored. Now, even though that grace comes from God, Paul knows that he has a responsibility to God with it. If you say the grace of God has been poured out to you, listen brother, listen sister, you have a responsibility to God with it. Paul says, it's not to me in vain because I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, since the paradox. I'm laboring, I'm striving, I'm working. I've got sleepless nights, I'm toiling. I'm in hunger and I'm in thirst. I'm in persecuted and stripes beyond measure and prisoned three nights in a deep. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Paul acknowledges that it is the grace of God that worked through him that produces the fruit. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believe, you have the grace of God given to you. You have responsibility with that grace. Here specifically, verse 11 results in Paul preaching. Paul just gets done telling us in chapter five, verse 20, that we are ambassadors for Christ. God, chapter five, verse 19, is committed to us the word of reconciliation. Will that grace fall to you in vain? Will it fall to you in vain? Will you fail to labor for the Lord in the ministry that she has given to you? Will you fail to minister to the Lord's people? Quickly turn with me to 1 Peter chapter four. 1 Peter chapter four, will you fail to minister to the Lord's people? We hear it on a regular basis here. I say it on a regular basis here. How good God is to us. How gracious he is to us in this church. What a beautiful blessing of God's grace this church is. When I say church, I mean you. Lord, thank you for the building. The building is wonderful, but we mean you. We love you. It is a joy to minister here. It is a joy to serve God with you. It is the grace of God to us, this very special place. We have responsibility with that. We've been given responsibility. You have responsibility to the brothers and sisters here, right? You don't have responsibility to brothers and sisters elsewhere in the same way that you have responsibility to brothers and sisters here. God has planted you here, placed you here, and God in his grace to us knits us just so together such that if you don't, if you're not faithful in your responsibility, the gift that he's given to you falls in reign toward the rest of your brothers and sisters here. Do you see? We're to minister to one another here. We get 1 Peter chapter four. This thought is expressed beginning in verse seven. But the end of all things is at hand. Peter could say that in the first century. We certainly can say that now, right? Even more so 2,000 years later. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, what's our response to that? Therefore, be serious, watchful in your prayers. It's assumed there that you will spend serious and watchful time in prayer. And above all things, above all things, have fervent love for one another. Love will cover a multitude of sins. I find it difficult to imagine that you could say that you love your brothers when you are never here, when you intentionally absent yourself from the gatherings of God's people. When you can just as easily go somewhere else, you could come here, right? Where is your love for the brothers? Where is your love for the Lord? And where's your love for the brothers? Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. And as each one has received, again, notice that passive has received. This is not something that you work up in your own strength or that you develop in your own strength. You have passive, have received it. Each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. In two categories then listed in verse 11. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. You have a gift to be able to speak. You have responsibility for the way that you speak. If anyone ministers, if anyone serves, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies. And many by God's grace have both gifts, some have one, some have the other, but we have gifts given to us by God. Use them, use it as if God, because he is giving it to you with the strength that God supplies. In other words, independence upon him, independence upon him. So that in all things, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. The grace of God that comes to us works. The grace of God that comes to us works. What keeps it from working other than you standing in its way. When you receive the grace of God in vain, it's a common thing that you pour out on the ground that not in an act of worship, pour out on the ground because it means nothing to you. What a grievous sin against God. Are you a mere hearer of the word, deceiving yourself? Or are you a doer? Don't allow grace, the tide, blood, fire hose of God's grace come to you like salt water into a dead sea and just sits there and things that die in it. And if you labor in his grace through faith, there's a promise in 2 Corinthians chapter six verses one and two. If you labor in his grace through faith, there's a promise. We then as workers together with him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For because he, God says, in an acceptable time I've heard you and in the day of salvation I've helped you. What a glorious grace of God even now in the present. Behold now is the accepted time. Behold now brothers and sisters is the day of salvation. I all praise, honor and glory to the one who lavishes his grace upon us. Amen.