My text this morning is found
in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, if you would turn there with me.
2 Corinthians chapter 8. The verse I'll be speaking to you
from is verse 9, but we'll look at several other verses. Now let me ask you a question
while you're turning. In the kingdom of God, is a rich
man a poor man, or is a poor man a rich man? Not a trick question,
or are we both? The church at Corinth was unusually
gifted. They were in the midst of a city
of polished, intelligent, gifted, and top-ranked worldly inhabitants. And such people were in the church,
the church of Corinth. The city of Corinth was a seaport
city full of commerce, trade, wealth, fine arts, and it was
often referred to as Sin City. And this created a problem for
the church that Paul had established there. They had money, wealth,
but they refused to share it for the furtherance and support
of the gospel. Now, rest in ease, this is not a message on giving.
I'm not trying to shame anybody into giving. Matter of fact,
over 10 years ago, we quit taking up an offering and put a box
in the back because we know that God's people give. They don't
have to be enticed. They don't have to be begged.
They don't have to be shamed into giving. But this church
at Corinth had to be exhorted by Paul to give. Their sin was
a great lack of giving. And in order to excite the church
at Corinth, the apostle Paul uses an argument concerning the
giving of a much poorer church in Macedonia. Look at verse one.
Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed
on the churches of Macedonia. how that in a great trial of
affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty
abounded unto the riches of their liberality. They, in other words,
they freely gave. Verse three, for to their power,
I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing
of themselves, praying for us, which with much entreaty, much
sincerity is what the word means, that we would receive the gift,
that being the gift of Christ, that being the gift of preaching
the gospel. You know that Christ is God's
gift to us, don't you? You know that the preaching of
the gospel is a gift that God gives to his people. And he said
that they would receive, that we would receive the gift and
take upon us the fellowship of the ministry to the saints. And
this they did, not as we, not as we hope, but first gave their
own selves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. Now look
at verse seven. Therefore, as ye abound in everything,
in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all diligence, all the
things that God graciously gives his people, and in your love
to us, see that you abound in this grace also. In other words,
Paul is saying here in verse 7 that God had greatly blessed
them. They abounded in everything.
They abounded in faith. They abounded in all diligence.
They loved the apostles, the preachers of the gospel. But they lacked one thing. They lacked the same thing that
that rich young ruler did. They did not abound in giving
to the Lord. What a crime this is when the
Lord gave them everything. We should never forget that everything
that we have, the Lord gave us. He gave it to us. In verse eight,
Paul said, I speak not by commandment. I'm not commanding you to give.
I'm simply asking you to prove the sincerity of your love for
Christ in the gospel. Now listen, the Lord doesn't
need our money. He doesn't. He owns the cattle
and a thousand heaves. He doesn't need our money. Matter
of fact, he said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you for anything. The Lord doesn't need for us
to give. The Lord teaches us that we need to give. And we
have a need to give because of what he gave. I think it was
Brother Henry or Brother Maurice who once said, if the Lord saves
you, he'll save your billfold too. He'll save your pocketbook
too. A child of God should never have
to be enticed, begged, or commanded to give. They'll give, they'll
give. They'll give out of love for
the one who loved them and gave himself for them. And this is
why, this is the argument of why we as believers have a need
to give. Verse nine, now look at it. For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor, that you through
his poverty might be rich. So the first thing that we need
to see is something that we already know. I say that quite often.
Let me tell you what you already know. Why do we do that? Because
we need to be told over and over again. How does faith come? It
comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And we truly
hear when we hear it over and over and over again. Someone much smarter than me
once said, people need to be told over and over what they
already know. You know, if I was to mention
a city that you had no knowledge of, and there are a lot of them,
yesterday on the way to Nashville, we took a little bike route,
Derek did, and I saw some cities I didn't know existed, little
towns, little, you know, bedroom cities as we call them to Nashville.
Well, if I did that, I mentioned the city you didn't know, you
might not have little interest. It may be of little interest
to you. But if I started talking about something that happened
in a place that turned out to be your hometown, that would,
I'm certain, I'm just certain that you would perk up and desire
to hear the story, that story with great interest. So let me
speak this morning on a subject that all true believers know
well, because it's something of great interest to them. This
ought to be, if you're a child of God, this ought to be of great
interest to you. It's something personal. And that's the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ coming from heaven to
earth to suffer for his people here in verse nine is called
grace. Grace. It's something personal
that the Lord did as an act of grace on His heart to and for
us. Today, the definition of grace
with most folks in religion seem to be something that they do
for God. But that's not grace. Grace is what God has done for
us. He wasn't bound to do it. We
did not deserve Him to do it. We're not entitled to His grace. No merit of ours was foreseen
by Him. God did not look in time and
see the man was gonna be good and then choose man upon the
basis of what He would do, salvations of the Lord. He came to earth as an act of
free mercy. He voluntarily came. He came
for those who didn't deserve it. Grace was the source and
foundation of His coming. It was the eternal love of God
by which we were first chosen in Christ that caused Him to
come in the same love in which He sent Christ our Savior to
redeem us. It was the same grace from which
all covenant mercy sprang. It was God's distinguishing grace
which brought the Savior here. Not by works we've done. Not
by a choice or a decision that we made. We didn't choose the
Lord, He chose us, right? John 15, 16 says that. You did, Christ said, you did
not choose me, I chose you. That ought to settle that. We
love the Lord because, this is why we love the Lord, because
he first loved us. 1 John 4, verse 19. It was because Christ, being
God, was full of grace and truth, full. That's why he left the
realms of glory to come down into the depths of our misery. Paul wrote here in our text,
you know the grace of God, of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know
that you are saved by grace through faith, and that's not of yourselves.
It's what? It's the gift of God. You know
it's not by works. And you and I, that you and I
may boast, a believer boasts only in the finished work of
Christ. I love what Brother Rex Bartley
says when he introduces preachers in Banfield. For any of you who've
heard him, he said, come brag on Christ. That's what we do
in preaching. We brag on the Lord Jesus Christ. Not what we've done, but what
he's done for us. He's the God of all grace. You gotta pay attention to these
words. He has all the grace. He's got all of it. No one else
can have any if he's got it all. Except those whom he gives it
to. They've got it as a gift. Not by works that they may boast.
If we're to receive it, he has to give it, right? Because it
all belongs to him. That's what Peter said. Peter
said, but the God of all grace, who has called us into his eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while,
make you perfect. established, strengthened, settled. 1 Peter 5, 10. If I'm saved by
God's grace, and I pray that I am, if I'm not, Lord, save
me right now. Then I'm gonna be established,
and I'm gonna be strengthened, and I'm gonna be settled. It's
all by grace. I'm settled with that. I'm settled
with that. I don't have to be convinced
of that. God's convinced me. God's revealed it to me. By Christ's
substitution, the wrath of God we deserve falls upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is substitution, friends.
And it falls upon Him in holy justice. In Christ Jesus took
the punishment that you and I deserve. Do you believe that? It's the
only way you'll have peace. It's the only way that you'll
have any comfort in this life. Because if it's dependent upon
you in any way, you're gonna constantly feel like you've fallen
short because you would have. It's not by my works, it's by
his finished work. And that's the gospel. If anyone's
truly saved, they know it's by grace. A believer knows it's
by grace alone, not according to anything which they had or
have done. Paul told Titus, not by works
of righteousness that you've done. Nope, that's not it. But according to his mercy, he
saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Paul named the deed that Christ
did right for us, for us right here in this verse. He called
it the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what it is.
We're saved by grace and grace alone. That's all my plea. Jesus
died for all his own and Jesus died for me. What a glorious
subject. Now, Paul follows up here with
the heights from which Christ descended. It says, he who was
rich became poor. For one so rich to become so
poor that one so poor might become so rich. For one so rich to become poor,
that takes grace. Sovereign grace. That's a substitution
of grace. There was no time in our Savior's
life on earth that He could have said to be rich because He became
poor. He was rich. He became poor. When we read that word rich,
the word falls way short of the description of what Christ truly
was and is. Christ is infinitely more rich
than anything that the world knows by that word. I referred a moment ago that
the cattle on a thousand hills are his. The mines of gold and
the secret treasures of the silver mine belong to him. Our Lord
could have said, where the diamonds sparkle, that mine is mine. Where the pearl glistens, I'm
the owner. I have the stars as my lamp.
The earth is mine in the fullness thereof. He did say that. All
belongs to Christ by possession. Our Savior was rich in service. Thousands of angels flew his
errands. He could have called 10,000 angels. They circled his throne rejoicing. Even while on earth, he prayed
to the Father and he said, I could call 12 legions of angels, that's
72,000. He wouldn't need but one. But
they were at his disposal. Our Lord was rich in sorrow.
Our Lord was rich in honor. No courts of Solomon could compare
to His. He was God over all, blessed
forever, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. He was exalted
above all principalities and powers in every name that is
named. The Lord Jesus was rich in love. This is the best of all wealth,
to be rich in love for others. especially those who are undeserving
of his love, like you and I are. His father loved him and said,
this is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased. If God's well pleased with him,
we share all today. Christ was rich in happiness.
On earth, standing in his people's place, he felt our sorrow, he
felt our grief, he felt our need, but he had none of his own. He
was essentially and perpetually happy. We talked about that in
the first out. Now, if such language can be
used concerning God, he had all that he could wish for. Our Lord
was rich. rich in all these things, rich
beyond imagination, but it still falls so very, very short of
what his riches really are. And yet here's the amazing thing
about it. Tell me if it's not so, that
though he was infinitely rich, gloriously rich, beyond our words
rich, yet he became poor. Yet he considered us. who were
nothing but poverty, spiritual poverty. He stooped and condescended
to us. The apostle tells the church
at Corinth, though he was rich, now look at that, look at it,
yet for your sakes, he became poor. Why did he become poor?
For your sake. For your sake, my sake, every
believer's sake. And as the word rich is not ample
to express Christ's riches, the word poor is not sufficient to
express our spiritual poverty. Is it? Oh man, how poor are we? Poor, poor. They're poor, poor.
We're poor, poor. And by his own voluntary act,
the Lord Jesus became poor. Pay attention to that word. He
was not made poor. He became poor. Big difference. Big difference. He wasn't made
poor against his own will. By his own will and purpose,
he became poor. He did not become bankrupt. He was not, as a king, expelled
from his dominion. He was not a fallen sovereign.
There is no such thing. You can't be sovereign and fall.
He didn't need us to give Him shelter and pity. People today
preach Christ as a little old man upstairs who wants somebody
to love him. Won't you just love Him back?
He's standing on the portals of heaven begging and pleading
for you to give Him your love. Bull. Bull. It was by his own fruition that
he became poor. That word poor is a word that
doesn't even touch the surface of our Lord's condescension.
Yes, he was poor in the ordinary sense. He was born of humble
parents. Mary and Joseph didn't have anything. Joseph was a carpenter. On earth, he was not a son of
a prince. He was not the son of one who was mighty. He was
the son of a carpenter. At his birth, he was not wrapped
in scarlet. He was swaddled with common threads. He was put in a manger. He was
not born in a place with marble halls. He was born in the stalls
of animals. His best friends were lowly fishermen,
uneducated. One was a despised tax collector.
He said of himself, foxes have holes and the birds of the air
have their nests, but I, the Son of Man, have nowhere to lay
my head. Does that sound like One Ridge? There was no need for him to leave an earthly last will and
testament. He didn't have anything, materially
speaking. All he owned was the garments
that he wore. And even then, the soldiers at
his crucifixion parted those garments among themselves. And
think about this. Our Lord died naked and indebted
to charity, for he was buried in a borrowed tomb. Does that
sound like one rich? You know, I honestly don't understand
or know where today's so-called health and wealth preachers get
their get-rich-and-never-be-sick doctrines. Not in the Bible. Not in the Bible. It's inconsistent
with the scriptures. Just a con man can make themselves
richer by preaching such things. So we've addressed our Lord's
outward poverty, but what about his poverty inwardly? And remember, it was for our,
the believer's sake, that he experienced this poverty. The
friends of Christ considered him poor. Judas betrayed him. Peter denied him. All his disciples
forsook him. Our Lord was poor, that word
means meek, in service. He washed His disciples' feet. Nowhere do I find where they
washed His. And when our Lord finally came
to the hour where human sympathy might have somewhat comforted
Him, He said to those who should have comforted Him, what? What? Could you not watch with
me one hour? His cry from the cross, you know
it well, was, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabathanai, which is to say,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And this indicated
a poverty of soul inwardly. It was as deep as his naked and
mangled body displayed his outward poverty. He had lost all. No, let me rephrase that, he
had given up all. He didn't lose anything, he gave
it up voluntarily. And he laid aside everything,
having his crown of glory exchanged for a shameful crown of thorns. No longer reverenced, but despised.
No longer adored, but spit upon. Not upon a throne, but upon a
cross. He's the Christ of the cross. No light of excessive
brightness in day, only three hours of darkness at midday sun. Though he was rich, for your sake, he became poor. And it was then in our text that
the Apostle Paul calls our attention to the object of Christ's imputed
righteousness, for your sake. For your sake, he was made poor. For the sake of the world? No.
For the sake of the believer, for the sake of the child of
God. Paul told the believing Corinthians,
Christ became poor for your sake. And he became poor for the sake
of every believer. Where could more unworthy objects
of this amazing love be found? Can you tell me? Because there
is no other place. that more unworthy objects could
experience his love. When it comes to me, I struggle
to understand how he became poor for me. I really do. Why? Because I live with myself. I
see myself at my worst. Why would he become poor for
me? You ever ask yourself that question? This is why, but God, who is
rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace,
are you saved. Right back to what he said. Now
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why. This
is why God became a man and died in your room instead. Because
of his grace. He's rich in mercy. His love
is great. He loved us with that great love.
Even when, even when we were dead in sins and he would not
have, we would not have him to rule over us. Not by nature we
didn't. God had to change our nature.
God had to give us a new nature that we would desire him. It
was all by His grace. Friends, His love and grace is
unmerited, undeserved. That's what the word means, unmerited
favor. I can't thank Him and praise
Him enough. I want to praise Him like He
deserves to be praised, but I just can't do it. I can't, not as
I should, not as He deserves. All of us are indebted to His
distinguishing mercy, dead in trespasses and sin. And for your
sakes, He was made poor. It's not speaking of the whole
world. This is speaking to whosoever believes on Christ. He that hath
the Son hath Christ. has life. He that hath Christ
has life. He that has not Christ does not
have life. It's just that cut and dry. Well,
you're pretty adamant. Yes, I am. I'm like that stone
we talked about in the first hour. Unchanging. I'm not a thorn in that makeshift
crown that's for himself. Every thorn was there for your
sake. No spit upon his cheeks did he himself deserve. No hair
plucked from those cheeks were for himself, but for you and
for me, who deserve such treatment. The cruel nails should have pierced
you and me. The spear in his side was for
you and for me. But for our sake, we were spared. And it was for his sake that
we were. He was made poor that we might
be made rich. Isn't that an amazing thought?
Men win the lottery today and they become rich, but that doesn't
even compare to the richness that I'm speaking of. He who made and owned all things
gave it all up so that you might be rich. What could you and I
do to repay him? Well, that's an easy answer.
Nothing. Nothing. His precious blood,
more priceless than rubies. His sweat and tears, more sparkling
than diamonds. Child of God, for your sake,
he was made poor. If he did all this for the sake
of us, ones who are so unworthy, what should you and I do for
his sake, who is so worthy? Well, He loved us and gave Himself
for us. Should we not be ready to give
and empty our small selves for Him, who is so great? If He gave all for us, what less
than all should we give Him? Now you think about that. What
less than all should we give Him? He who gave everything that
He did not, We did not deserve, deserves
all for those to whom he gave it. All that the Lord Jesus did,
he had an object for whom he did it. That you, you, and you,
the wretched sinner you are, through his poverty might become
rich. Because of this, all our confidence,
all our hope, all our assurance and salvation must be found in
Him. So, our confidence is in Him, not
in us. If we're made to be rich by Christ
in any capacity, it was through His voluntary poverty. So, are you a wealthy person? Well, not on the records, I'm
not. Not by material means, I'm not. But what I mean is, are you spiritually
wealthy? Are you eternally wealthy? Is
your treasure on earth? Or is your treasure in heaven?
Is Christ your treasure? Are you God's gift to Christ? It's Christ's gift to you, your
treasure. God's gift to you, Christ, your
treasure. Again, I'm reminded of that rich young ruler. The
Lord said to him, if thou be perfect, and that's what we have
to be for God to accept us. He said, go and sell all you
got and give it to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. Oh, treasure in heaven. He said, come and follow me.
That's our treasure. It's not earthly things that
moth and rust corrupt, nor things that thieves break in to steal
that we lay up as treasures. Not the believer, no. Our true
treasure is Christ. Where's your heart at? That's
where your treasure is. Christ is my treasure. Where's your heart at? For the
believer, it's where Christ is. That's where the one who loved
me and gave himself for me is. My treasure is where Christ who
gave up all to make me rich in eternal things is. Let me say
it again. Christ is my treasure. What about you? What about you? Turn back just a few pages to
chapter four of 2 Corinthians. A couple pages, maybe one. Look
at verse five. This is part of Paul's same letter
to this same church at Korea. In verse five, Paul says, for
we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves,
your servants, for Jesus' sake. Brother Mahan wrote in his commentaries
concerning this verse, gospel preachers do not preach their
opinions, they don't preach their philosophies, nor do they preach
to promote themselves, to supply themselves with life's necessities. This is what the Apostle Paul
said, we are your servants for Christ's sake. Out of love for
him, Christ was made poor for your sake that you might be made
rich. Verse six here. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, where? In the
face of Jesus Christ. Verse seven, but we have this
treasure in earthen vessels. Now, when we make our departure
from this life to the next, We don't get that treasure. Damn,
we got it right now. We got this treasure in earthen
vessels right now. That the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. What Paul is saying here is this,
the gospel and the preaching of it is the most important,
most urgent, desperately needed thing in the world. This is the
message of life. God's true servants want you
to have it more than anything else in this world. In verse
eight, Paul said, we as ministers are troubled on every side, yet
we're not in distress. How? God sees to. He says, we
as servants of the Most High are called to preach Christ in
Him crucified. Yes, we are often perplexed,
we're often in despair, but our Lord sees to it. that everything's
all right. Verse nine, we're persecuted,
but not forsaken. Christ will never leave us nor
forsake us. We're often cast down, but we're never destroyed
because our Lord sees to it. He's our treasure. Verse 10,
we're always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord,
that the life also of Jesus Christ might be made manifest in our
body. For we which live are always
delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh
in us, but life in you. And we have in the same spirit
of faith, according as it is written, I believed and therefore
have I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak. Knowing
that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up raise us
up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are
for your sake, the believers' sake, that the abundant grace
might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory
of God. For which cause? We think not. but though our
outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory." Now that's a treasure. While we look
not at the things which are seen, we don't look and trust or find
our treasure in earthly things or in earthly riches, but at
the things which are not seen. for the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Some seem to think that on account of their good works on earth,
they're gonna reside in a mansion, but we who are saved by grace
are gonna live in a little cabin on the backside of glory. I've
told you that story about Brother Winford. Someone asked him one
time, who believed that way, said, you know, Winfrey said,
are you saying I'm not saved? He said, oh no, you're saved,
but you're gonna live in a little cabin on the backside of glory.
And Brother Winfrey's question, the same as mine, will Christ
be there? Will Christ be there? And of
course, the other party answered, of course, yeah, you'll be, you
know, Christ will be there. And Brother Winfrey said, then
the cabin will be just fine. The cabin will just be fine if
Christ is gonna be there. The believer's treasure for eternity
will be the Lord Jesus Christ. You see friends, for you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That though he was rich, yet
for your sake, your sake, he was made, he became, no he wasn't
made, he became poor. that ye through his poverty might
be rich. So let me answer the question
that I asked in the beginning. In the kingdom of heaven, is
a rich man a poor man or is a poor man a rich man? Or are they both? In salvation, in and by and through
the Lord Jesus Christ, a poor sinner is made rich. And that
same sinner, because of Christ's poverty, is made rich in Him. So we're both. I pray that those
here this morning without Christ may truly see that. Christ, the
richest of all, became poor. That you and I, the poorest of
all, might become rich. And we know, it's revealed to
us, this is the grace of God, salvations of the Lord, How do
we know? Because the poor sinner did nothing
and Christ did it all. That's how we know. That sure
sounds like good news. Sounds like gospel news to me. How about you? Amen.