The word that I want to speak
a short while to you on is found in the 9th verse on the front
page of your sheets. For ye know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. Now the Apostle is writing to
these Corinthians, he commends unto them, he says that they
do abound in everything, in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, and
in all diligence, and their love to them, and he wants them to
abound in this grace as well, and the grace is that they be
forward in helping those Christians that are in need. They were to
supply the needs of the poor churches at jerusalem now with
the church of god there is the two sides isn't there's the giving
and there's the receiving and it may be many of you through
your lives have been giving and you've been helping others but
now it more is a time of actually receiving and helping and yet
each in your small way and the way that you are able to in the
home you're still able to walk in this way of supplying the
needs of the people of God but remember there's two sides of
it and sometimes in our life as is evident here we will be
a giver and sometimes we will be a receiver and every giver
needs a receiver So if you're thinking, well, I'm in the home,
I can't help many people, I can't do much, I can't use my money
to help people, I can't use my strength, I can't sometimes even
use my words, and yet think that your needs now are the opportunity
for others to be a giver. The other thing in this passage
is that where we have first a willing mind in something, first we have
indicated that we are going to do something, make sure that
we actually do it, and don't keep putting it off. and very
often we can do this and especially we're increased in years you
can put off putting your house in order put off maybe giving
power of attorney or doing various things and keep putting it off
until it is too late so may this word again be in season the verses
11 and 12 as well now therefore perform the doing of it that
as there was a readiness to will so there may be a performance
also out of that which you have so a reminder if there are things
amongst you that your families are wanting you to do, you should
be doing, make sure you do them. It is to the Lord's honour and
glory. Now our text gives a real incentive
to do this, and there can be no greater incentive than actually
the example of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. It is the Lord
Jesus that is set before us here in verse 9. For ye know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be
rich. May we always try to pattern
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and notice those passages in the
Word of God of which our Lord is set forth as a forerunner,
as one that shows us the way that we are to go. Well, in this
passage then, Paul, he speaks of the grace, knowing the grace
of the Lord, and of course It is this last, this epistle to
the Corinthians. At the end of it comes the benediction
that we use at many, all of our services. He finishes the epistle,
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion
of the Holy Ghost be with you all. So constantly is setting
before us the grace of the Lord, and our text says, for ye know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, what then is the teaching
here, the passage? is centering on grace. So what
is grace? What is grace? How easy we can
think that we know what something is and not really realize what
it is. Grace is the favor or blessing
and kindness. And really it is God choosing
to bless us rather than to curse us as we deserve, as our sins
deserve to be cursed. God chooses rather to bless us. Instead of cutting off Adam and
Eve, He gave them the promise of the Saviour. Instead of sending
to hell and to just damnation, He sends forth His beloved Son
and gives the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, a way
of escape from the wrath to come. And that is grace, it's kindness
to those that are undeserving. And that flows through from salvation
to everything in our lives. We deserve nothing at the Lord's
hand, but the Lord gives kindness instead of what we deserve. and so I want to just think of
three points this afternoon and to note especially how much in
this verse is is very personal and real religion is a personal
thing the text begins ye know and then for your sakes and then
that ye so all the time we have it is pointing to them, these
Corinthians, and it's pointing to us as well. So the first thing is a personal
knowledge of the grace of the Lord. Where do we get that personal
knowledge? When the Lord first begins with
us, when He calls by grace, when He gives us eternal life, passes
by and bids us live, We have become a personal recipient of
that Grace of God. We know because we have actually
experienced it in our souls. The Apostle knew it. He knew
what it was on the Damascus Road to go from spiritual death the
spiritual life from a hater of the Lord to a lover of the Lord
he had received the grace of God then and then later on when
he had the thought in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet
him He received it again. The Lord said, My grace is sufficient
for thee, and you may find therein a home. You have been saved by
grace. You've been converted. You've
been born again. And now you have fresh trials,
fresh difficulties. the trials of increasing infirmity
and you need more grace and bless God he says he giveth more grace
and graceful grace and so in a fresh way like the apostle
needed it for his thorn you know what it is to have a personal
knowledge of the grace of the Lord And then, of course, we
know it through the Word of God. As the Lord gives us a hearing
ear, we read the Word of God, we can read of the promises,
we can read of His kindness, His faithfulness, His coming
to this world, His obedience, even unto death, the death of
the cross. We can read of those blessings
that flow through our Lord Jesus Christ, and many, many examples
of His kindness to the disciples To the blind, the poor, the lame,
the maimed Those that had nothing, those that were in need, He supplied
their needs. And especially the lamb for a
burnt offering, as Abraham said, my God, my son, he says to Isaac,
my God will provide a lamb for a burnt offering. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, as John the Baptist commenced his ministry, He declared
and he pointed him out, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. And so, a personal knowledge. Dear friends, may this afternoon
be a time of realization. The Lord has given me a personal
knowledge of the grace of our Lord. He has been kind to me. He hasn't dealt with me as my
sins deserved. And He will still be gracious. personal knowledge. Bless the
Lord for it, if you and I have that, not only in word, but also
in experience. The second thing is to have a
personal knowledge that it was for our sakes that He became
poor. Our Lord spoke of the glory that
He had with the Father before the world was. He spoke of His
riches there in glory, and yet He left His Father, He came to
this world he became a man made under the law, made of a woman,
to redeem them that are under the law. And he condescended
to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, to be despised and
rejected of men. And yet in that obedience and
his sufferings, his pain, the hiding of a father's face, all
that he endured and all that he went through. may we be able
to trace that it was for our sakes. Our text says that though
he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. Not just a general
becoming poor, but for the sake of these Corinthians, and for
the sake of you in the pilgrim home, and of me, for every one
of God's children It was for their sake, the Lord said, if
I be lifted up above the earth, I'll draw all men unto me. And to realize that it was for
us that he suffered as he did. So again, this must be personal
to view it was our sins that pierced him. It was what we had
done that incurred the wrath of God upon him. Personal knowledge
then, that it was for our sakes he became poor. Have we looked
upon all of the sufferings of our Lord, and viewed that it
was our sins that nailed him to the cross, our sins that pierced
him? It was for our sake that he became
poor. The third thing is a personal
knowledge that it is through His poverty that we might be
rich. That this is the channel, this
is the way that the Lord makes His people rich. How are they
rich? Not in gold and silver. but in
bringing them from death to life, in bringing them to be in possession
of the knowledge of God, the grace of God, the mystery of
godliness, God manifest in the flesh, the secret of the Lord
which is with them that fear Him, rich to be a partaker with
Christ in glory, to be His children, His people, His redeemed people,
His inheritance, to be with Him forever in heaven, to have an
eternal weight of glory, a crown of glory that faded not away,
reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
day. A personal knowledge that traces
every blessing comes to us, through Jesus' precious blood, that it
is inseparable, that we don't just see things as just coming
to us, but coming to us through His sufferings, through His death. This is why with the Lord's Supper,
the Church of God is never to forget the sufferings and death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is through Him that these
blessings flow, through His shed blood. So there are three thoughts
to remain with you, I trust, for this Lord's Day. A personal
knowledge of the grace of our Lord through the Word and in
experience. A personal knowledge that it
was for us that He became poor. And a personal knowledge that
every blessing that comes to us, all the riches that we have
as a Christian, as one of the Lord's people, comes to us through
Christ becoming poor, through His sufferings and through His
death.