Another balmy day in sunny Florida. Psalm 32 verse one blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered. No greater blessing than that to have our transgression forgiven and our sin

The only covering that will hide sin from the eyes of God is the blood of Christ. But it does, it does.

Let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly Father, how very thankful we are that we can come here to this place today, open thy word, and read these words. knowing that you are true and faithful to all of your precious promises. Lord, how hopeful and how thankful we are that you've promised to meet with us and that you've promised to manifest your grace and your glory through your word in the preaching of your gospel and in the person of thy dear son. Or that is our need. Now we pray to that end. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

I've asked Jeff Tobin Heim if he would bring the first message this morning, and I'm very thankful that he has, uh, been willing and prepared to do that. So, Jeff, you calm brother and share with us what the Lord's put on your heart.

All right, good morning. Let's pray first. Our Lord and our Father, Lord, you are great. And your mercy, Lord, is higher than the heavens. And Lord, you have said that you would meet with your people and give power to your word. Lord, please do that today. Please keep your hand of mercy on this church, Lord, for many years to come, God. Lord, show us, show us the gospel once more today. If we have you, Lord, we have all. And in your son's name, we pray. Amen.

I want to bring a message from Second Corinthians chapter eight this morning. So Providence has smiled on us because This morning, I found out that a downed power line, because of the cold, had caused a big brush fire right at the only road that we can take to get here. Otherwise, we would have to drive up to Umatilla before we could even start headed towards Apopka. But we had spent the night at the Sharon's last night. Otherwise, we would have certainly been late.

I was thinking lately about dying. in that very second, what that would be like. I realized it's not a shutting down. It's a beginning. It's a speeding up. And it's not darkness enclosing, but it would be light bursting. We'll see and know that death was really only a shadow. And that shadow only casts in one direction. when life will begin, truly, for the child of God when we leave this world.

Let's read our text in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, starting in verse 1. 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. For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves, praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God, insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. Therefore, as you abound in everything in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all diligence and in your love to us, see that you abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity of your love. For, you know, this will be our verse we focus on. 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, might have durable riches.

Paul said that it's a good thing that the heart be established with grace and not with strange and diverse doctrines and things that don't profit. If it's not grace, it doesn't profit. And I've been praying that I would give you something that would build you up, something that is solid, something that you can build a foundation on, that God would use to establish and to strengthen and settle you in the gospel

God calls his house, his church, his house. I don't want to be the Christmas lights or the satellite dish. I want this to be the foundation, something solid for you. I want to give you the gospel.

In this chapter, in these verses, Paul is exhorting the Corinthians to liberality, to be more quick, more willing to send their money to herding needy churches. Like in verse one and two, He says in verse one, look at the grace of God bestowed on the churches in Macedonia, that in a great trial of affliction, their deep poverty abounded to the riches of their liberality. And then in verse seven, Paul tells the Corinthians, you abound in all these things. diligence, your love to us, but see that you abound in this grace also, like the Macedonians."

When we see in the world the way that the world talks about giving money, it's always a touchy subject. And the motives and the messaging shows how sinful we really are. It's guilt. would be the motive, or reward, or praise from men, praise from God, are the motives given for why, if you were to, say, turn on your TV, why you should give your money to somewhere.

But what motivates a believer, we see it so clearly in this section of scripture, what motivates a believer, it's you know, You know, in verse nine, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we are here. There's some things that we know.

In this generation, it is considered virtuous, it seems like, to not know things, to have an open mind where you say, I don't know. I guess they could be right. I think they're right, too. I don't know. And so you admit that you know nothing, and that is considered virtuous. But we know some things, and everything we know is about a man we know, Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of God, who was raised from the dead. All spiritual wisdom and sight is given by him, and it leads to him. You can know something is of God if it glorifies his son. This is the gospel of God concerning his son.

We know some things and everything we know is about the grace of God. The only way we can abound in anything and the only way we do abound is by grace, knowing the grace of God.

Believers have a nature that is different than those that walk after the course of this world. That's why we are motivated by different things. In the gospel, Peter says, there's given to us exceeding great and precious promises through the knowledge of him. By knowing Jesus Christ, these great promises are how we are partakers of the divine nature. That's our nature.

I love that we can know these things, that we can know him. We don't have to pretend we are virtuous by being open-minded. We can be closed-minded and know God.

I believe God has given me a message, and it's about what motivates us. When we know that there's something that we need to abound in and we're not, where do we look? What do we do? We fall back on who we know and all we know in the gospel. We know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there's only one God. We know that all things work together for good. Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed. He will hear him. I know that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. To know the grace of God is a strong tower. The righteous run in and they're safe. And they have a feast of fat things right before them with a king sitting at the table. And that king has his undivided attention on us. He knows everything about us and loves us. We have everything we need right there.

And so in verse seven, when Paul says, see that you abound in this grace, also, he's saying, you're in, you're with the king. His assets are yours. Everything he has and is is available to you. I'm not asking you to dip into your account, your savings. See that you abound in this by looking to him because I know you know the grace of God now abound. We know the grace of God. We know that that grace that spoke life to us and put us on our feet in the first place and gave us life is the same grace we walk by now. It's the same grace that we abound. It's the same grace that we look to for the things that we need to abound in.

As many as walk by this rule, Paul says, the rule of the new creature in Christ, as many as walk by that rule. Not walk by fear, shame, guilt, or desire for esteem, but the rule of the new creature where all things are new. As many as walk by that rule, peace be upon them.

This portion of scripture is so precious to me because As I'm sure you would say, there are things in our life that we do not abound in. And God, the Holy Ghost, who takes the things of Christ and shows them to us, he stirs our hearts by glorifying his Son, by reminding us of something that we know, that God, the Son, who's God over all and needed nothing, that for the sake of God's elect who were chosen before the foundation of the world, for their sake, though he was rich, he became poor. He didn't have anywhere to lay his head. He became poor. He cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? For us, for our sins. and that we might be rich. We know these things.

I once came across something written by Jonathan Edwards. He was a Congregationalist preacher in New England. It was a list of resolutions he had made for the new year, things he wanted to be better at. And I thought, well, these are all nice. These are great things. A lot of them really resonated with me. But the question for the believer is not, are these good things we should aim for? That's never the question. It's, what do we do when we fail? What then? Is it back to the workshop or look to Jesus Christ? Know that he was made poor so that I would be rich. Do I know the grace of God, or do I know about trying harder? Those are the only two ways to approach God.

Like I said, I want to build on the foundation, give you something solid. Let's look at verse nine. You know, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything we are is because of what we know. We know that salvation is not a remedy. We know what grace is. It's not God making the most of a bad situation. It's not him trying to save. It's not a God who will regret his own decision to make man and regret his own holiness as he hears those in hell forever. It's a God who saves his people. We know that God is not cheering us on while we go about our day doing the foolish and self-serving things we were going to do anyway. That's how most churches present the gospel, that God is trying to save. He wants to help you. He wants to be your personal assistant.

We know that grace is not that God loves all men and Christ died for all men. He set a wicked man over him. And when he's judged, let him be condemned. That's the words of Christ in the gospel. Let their eyes be darkened, let they see not.

We know that the grace of God is not God lowering the bar of his justice so that he can get people to heaven. Many preachers, that's how they sound when they speak. They make it sound like God saw that nobody could keep the law, but he really wanted them in heaven. So he lowered the bar. He sent Christ. And if you believe in Jesus Christ, God accepts your faith, your faith itself, as an alternative to a perfect righteousness. And so he raises the white flag, gives up on his own holiness and justice, and takes people to heaven that way.

Make no mistake, it must be perfect to be accepted. There will be nobody in glory of whom it cannot be said, who shall lay anything to that one's charge? Nobody. It's Christ that died. It's God that justifies. God has never lowered the bar of his justice.

We know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those are all the world's graces, but we know the grace of God. What is it? We know that God the Father chose a particular people and his love made them his children before time. Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God. And he put us in Christ before the foundation of the world and has never seen his children outside of Jesus Christ. God, we know the grace of God.

We know that God purposed the fall of all men in Adam so that we were brought forth foolish, disobedient, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, even us. Though fallen in Adam, God saw his elect only in his son. and sent him forth, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. And just like Adam looked at Eve and said, this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, Jesus Christ, when he came into this world, he had a wife. And she was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. And when he lived a perfect life, God saw all of his church living that life. It's not as if, it's that we did in Him, bone of His bone.

We know the grace of a God. In His life, He glorified the Father. He always obeyed the Father and showed us the Father. And in His death then, He was made a curse and nailed to the cross and died. He was made to know what it was like for the eternal God himself to bear down in anger. We often say the full force and fury of God came down on Jesus Christ, and that is true. Really, it was God. God. God's anger. over sin and Jesus Christ was made to know that and suffer for it and died for sins not his own, but the sins of every person God loves so that those sins are gone. They don't exist. They are put away and we're righteous, holy and pure now because he's died.

We know the grace of God and we know that though we were born abominable filthy and drinking iniquity like water, though he did that for us already. And there came a day in our life where God sent his gospel and power, and we found ourselves believing, we found ourselves loving what we read. We were made to know for the first time that we cannot be saved except by Jesus Christ. It couldn't work. It can't happen. And we saw that for the first time and loved it. This is the grace of God, and we know the grace of God. There came a day where he gave us life from above. God gave himself to us through the preaching of the gospel. And that is the grace of the Lord, and it's the only way to abound. Remember, Paul says, abound in this grace also. You're not abounding in it. You need to. And this is how you're going to. You know the grace of our Lord. I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. He doesn't guilt. He doesn't promise a claim from men or God. In fact, in verse 8, he says, I speak not by command. You don't need to command a believer, they love God. I speak not by commandment, but by the occasion of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity of your love. I pray we would all have opportunities with each other to prove the sincerity of our love.

There's many things I don't abound in. But Paul takes me to the solid rock, the foundation, the grace that we know. Now, tells us more about that grace. And that's how it is, we can't help but speak the things that we've seen and heard. If you start talking about Jesus Christ, it's gonna go on a while, I like that. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, though he was rich, I think one of the reasons for man's hatred of God, and one of the reasons why religious people have a baby Jesus in their yard, they hate God because he would be fine without them. Sinful man hates that. Can't stand having somebody who's not under our thumb, who doesn't need us. Before time, the triune God needed nothing, had everything. How can he have everything if he hadn't yet created? Because he's God. The three persons of the Godhead gloried in their very own perfection. The Lord Jesus is rich because he's God, also rich because God the Father trusted all to him, all the work of salvation. Everything was put into the hands of God the Son

Let's go to Proverbs chapter eight. Proverbs chapter eight, please. Proverbs chapter eight, starting in verse 22, please.

Verse 22 says, the Lord possessed me. We know that Christ throughout Proverbs is speaking as wisdom here. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. The beginning of his way, Jesus Christ is, we read, the alpha, the beginning, and the omega, the ending. He is appointed heir of all and given to be head over all to the church. He's the beginning of God's way because all of God's salvation is built upon him and his operations of grace in sending Jesus Christ into this world.

And what is God's way, the beginning of his way, what is that? Well, it's salvation, the beginning of God's salvation. David's prayer was that thy way might be known upon the earth, thy saving health among the nations. God possessed him in the beginning of his way as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Verse 23, I was set up from everlasting to take on humanity. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was, he was set up to be put to death, all before the foundation of the world. That's what Paul's gospel is, too. He says, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing our trespasses to us. Now be reconciled to him.

Verse 30 said, now let's, no, let's read it all. Verse 24, when there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water, Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth, while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there. You know that he was rich. When he set a compass upon the face of the depth, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass his commandment, when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. As one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, and the word was God, rejoicing always before him. He was rich, God rejoiced in himself. rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth. And my delights were with the sons of men."

Was his delights with all the sons of men? No, he cannot. He says, I hated Esau, and I laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. He delights in his elect, those who he prayed for, died for, lived for, rose for, and loved. That's who he delights in, and he delights in the habitable part of his earth. Because where his elect live is the only habitable part of the world. We are called in Psalms the shields of the earth, because us being here as God's children is the only reason why he doesn't destroy this world.

You can't go to Sodom and Gomorrah today because it's still a flat expanse of salt, I hear. And do you remember, why could God not destroy it yet? Because he had to get Abraham out. Because Abraham was loved by God, and lot too. And he reasoned with God. He said, would you destroy it? If there were 10 righteous people in this city, no, says God, I would not. There were not 10 righteous people, there were a few, and God got them out and sent that place to hell. God delights where his people are.

So back to 2 Corinthians, please, chapter eight. People manipulate us by saying, well, I was fine without you. But actually God says it for our encouragement. And that he was rich before the foundation of the world is not an obscure point. We will behold him in glory and see this. Christ prays in John chapter 17. After he says that the Father loved his church as he's loved the Son, Christ says this, Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, heaven, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Glory was given him. He was rich.

So when God admonishes us to abound in this grace also, he's saying, set your heart on one who was rich, who needed nothing, who never began, who has everything. Take from his strength, he will give you strength to do this. Now, back in verse nine, though our Lord needs nothing, though he was rich, Yet, for your sakes, he became poor. This is grace that makes, this is what makes us abound, knowing that he became poor for us. It's grace for your sake. You see, it's grace for somebody. The congregation of the dead preach a grace that is like a blank check that God just dropped into this world and hopes that all will write their name on it. There's really nothing special about that, though. But grace that makes you abound is a grace that is for your sake. He left his father's throne above and came to earth on wings of love. And what he endured, no tongue can tell. For your sakes, this is grace that makes us abound. He became poor for those who were born hating him. and they were content to believe that they were rich. And he did that because he delights in mercy. Our God delights in mercy.

He became poor first because he left a sinless place in order to be a nobody, to be a nobody, and to walk this world, this cursed world full of those who hate him, he came here to bear part of Adam's curse. In Genesis chapter three, he was eating herbs out of the curse ground and bred by the sweat of his face as a carpenter. He was a nobody in the world that he made and the breath that he gave men was used to slander him. Remember, is not this the carpenter's son? and Mary is his mom, and his brothers and his sisters are here. He was denigrated and slandered in the world that he made.

He was made poor for us, for your sake, and then made poor on the cross when he who knew no sin was made to be sin. That you might be rich This is the only way we can abound is with the riches of another.

Can we go to Romans chapter eight? Can we go to Romans chapter eight, please? You know, he says, you have not because you ask not. How could he say that unless we already had all things, unless he makes us rich? his poverty, unless everything that God can give was ready to freely give. How could he say, truthfully, that the only thing, the only reason you don't have something is because you didn't ask, unless everything was ready to give us.

Verses one through six, this is what it looks like to be made rich, to be rich, sorry, it doesn't say made rich in our text, it says rich. Verses one through six, what has God done in these verses that wouldn't, by itself, alone, make us rich? There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Those who don't need a commandment, they are looking for a chance to prove their love. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death, for what the law could not do. in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, he made poor, he became poor, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, became poor on the cross. He condemned the condemnation, and he was condemned, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. Rich, made rich. It doesn't say by us or through us. In us. Like this cup would be filled with water. Fulfill the righteousness in us. Who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. They have nothing desolate. but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Life and peace is riches, and they come by his poverty. So when there's something that God shows us we are not abounding in, we have riches. They're another's. They're ours because he made them to be ours, and they come from him by his grace. And God cannot give more than what he gives to his church. What has he done that wouldn't make us rich all by itself here? The spirit of This is what we have, spirit of Christ, word of Christ, the mind of Christ, grace of Christ, love of Christ, faith of Christ, life of Christ, of him, by his riches, because he was made poor.

Later on, Paul writes to the Corinthians, and he says, all things are yours. all things. So I'm sure that there are many things, as in verse seven, that you abound in. I'm sure there's many things you don't, but you know the grace of our Lord. Amen.

Lord God, our Father, Lord, those things that we do not abound in, Lord, please show us your Son more and more. it.