As Mike was reading that text,
the words caught my eye that Paul wrote to the Corinthians.
For our light affliction, this is a guy whose back was solid
scar tissue, had been in prison, had been in perils that we will
never know anything about, yet he wrote our light affliction. And I feel like when he wrote
that, he was probably thinking of what his savior and ours went
through. And compared to that, anything
we endure in this life is certainly a light affliction. For our reading
this morning, for our text, let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
8. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. A familiar text, but one that
never gets old. Second Corinthians chapter eight,
we'll begin reading at verse one. Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace
of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. How then 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 a 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 to us by the will of God in so much
that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, he would also finish
in you the grace, same grace also. Therefore, as you are bound
in everything in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all diligence
and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, but
by occasion to the forwardness of others. to prove the sincerity
of your love. And this is our text. For you
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. Paul begins this verse with the
statement, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When
we know something, we grasp it in our minds with clarity and
certainty. We regard it as absolutely true
beyond any doubt. Now we understand things by experience. I believe that you cannot 100%
believe something until you experience it. We can have a description
of things in precise detail, and yet I feel like until you've
experienced those things, you never quite 100 percent believe
it. But once you have experienced
it, any doubt that may have existed is now removed. Now, 12 times
in the book of First John, we read this phase. We know. We know him speaking of Christ,
we know that this is the last time we know that we shall see
him as he is. We know we have passed from death
unto life. We know that we are of the truth. We know that he abideth in us. We know that we love the children
of God. We know that he hears us. We
know that we have the petitions that we desire of him. We know
that whosoever is born of God senteth not. We know that we
are of God and we know that the son of God So this ninth verse
of our text tells us that we know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have experienced in our heart
the very merits of Christ our Lord, His effectual work. We
know that grace to be real. One of the best definitions of
grace that I have ever found is this, unmerited divine kindness
and favor given to humans for their regeneration and sanctification. Now, someone once said that grace
is God giving us what we don't deserve, and mercy is God not
giving us what we do deserve. Now, this grace is referenced
many times in the New Testament by the various writers. And the
writers weren't satisfied with just using the term grace. They
use many different adjectives to describe that grace. It is
called abundant grace, meaning it's plentiful, marked by great
quantities. It is called abounding grace,
meaning it's overflowing and present in huge numbers. It is
called quickening grace, able to give life to those that are
dead in sins and trespasses. It is called saving grace, able
to rescue us from eternal ruin and bring us unto God. It is
called redeeming grace, that which pays a sufficient price
to bring us from darkness into his marvelous light. It is called
justifying grace. Powerful enough to make us fit
to stand before God as holy as Christ himself. It is called
exceeding grace found in quantities that are way beyond what is needed
to supply our needs. It is called sufficient grace,
being as much as is needed to see us through our troubles.
It is called glorious grace, characterized by great beauty,
splendor and magnificence. It is called sanctifying grace,
that which sets a chosen people apart to be the objects of God's
manifold blessings. Now, almost every letter of the
New Testament mentions this grace. Depending on the writer, they
put it in different ways, but they always use terms like, grace
and peace be with you, or the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Now the very dwelling place of
our God is called the throne of grace. That throne of grace
that the writer of Hebrews told us to come boldly unto, that
we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now, if you need grace, then
the logical place to get that grace would be at a throne of
grace, a place where there is abundant grace to be had, a place
that is the very fountain, the very source of grace, the place
where all grace originates, the throne of grace. Now, being blessed
as we are with living in America, we do not fully understand how
it was in the days when King set upon thrones of power and
dominion. Therefore, I don't think we quite
appreciate the marvel of this text in Hebrews. It encourages
us to come boldly to the throne of God, to the very throne of
grace, to come with confidence before the ancient of days and
make known our petitions before him. coming, remembering the
words of Christ that he spoke in John 14 when he said, whatsoever
you shall ask in my name, that will I do that the father may
be glorified in the son. If you shall ask anything in
my name, I will do it. Now, in the days when kings rule,
the king subjects did not just stroll into the king's throne
room and make their petitions known. You had to either be summoned
by the king or request an audience before the king. But if you were
merely a person of average means, it was a good bet that you would
never be granted an audience. And if you were summoned to stand
before the king, many times you were accused of an offense against
that king. And in those days, there was
no such thing as innocent until proven guilty. If you were standing
before a king accused of a crime against that king, Usually there
was never any mercy shown. It was only strict justice. Because
there is no need for mercy when all power rests with the king.
But just because you requested an audience before the king,
if you were just a peon, just an average person like all of
us are, there's a good chance you would never get that audience.
Now, one example of what I'm talking about. Turn over with
me to the book of Esther. The Book of Esther. I'll give
you a minute to find it. I'm referring to being able to
come into the presence of a king. In the Book of Esther, Chapter
5. The Book of Esther, Chapter 5.
This is a description of what it's like to be able to come
into the presence of a king. Now we'll start reading in verse
one of Esther chapter five. Now it came to pass on the third
day that Esther put on her royal apparel and stood in the inner
court of the king's house over against the king's house. And
the king set upon his royal throne in the royal house over against
the gate of the house. And it was so when the king saw
Esther the queen standing in the court that she obtained favor
in his sight And the king held out to Esther, the golden scepter
that was in his hand. So Esther drew near and touched
the top of the scepter. Now, you need to realize that
Esther was the queen. And yet she didn't just barge
into the king's presence without being granted royal permission.
But once she was given that permission, we read in verse three, then
said the king unto her, what wilt thou queen Esther? And what
is I request? It shall even be given thee to
the half of my kingdom. Now, once in the presence of
the king, Esther had the freedom and latitude to ask whatever
her heart desired. But in order to have that freedom,
she first had to be granted permission to enter into the presence of
the king. Now, in those days, the sure way to have your head
separated from the rest of your body was to demand a president
or a audience with the king to bust into the throne room of
a king. It was a sure bet that if you
were that crazy it would probably not end well for you. And even
in the days of the Jewish tabernacle the high priest only entered
into the Holy of Holies the representative presence of God only once a year
and that trembling and that with blood trembling because he was
about symbolically to enter into the presence of the high king
of this universe, the God of heaven and earth. But now, thanks
to the finished work of Christ on our behalf, God's children
do not have to request an audience with the very God of this universe.
They do not have to come trembling, not knowing if this God will
destroy them for importunity of coming into his presence.
We can now do as the writer of Hebrews encouraged us to do and
come not trembling, but boldly to make our requests known before
our sovereign father. Knowing that we are entitled,
and I use that word purposely, we are entitled to all of the
blessings of God because we are now made to be heirs of God,
joint heirs with Christ. Children of the living God. And
as children of that God, we are infinitely better off than Esther
ever was. The reason I say that is because
the king offered to Esther up to half of his kingdom, and yet
our God freely gives us all blessings, all access to every blessing
found in that great storehouse of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.
We do not have access to half the kingdom. We have access to
it all. to the treasures found in Christ,
who is the express image of God. He who John said was full of
grace and truth, he by whom grace and truth comes to us. That grace that our God told
the Apostle Paul was sufficient for him to deal with his thorn
in the flesh, and it will be sufficient for us in our time
of trouble. Now, next in our text, we read
this. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich. Now we read these words and try
to imagine what they mean, though he was rich. And this, of course,
is not speaking of monetary wealth. He who owns all things and he
has no need of money. It's referring to the glorious
majesty in which our blessed Lord dwelt before coming and
setting aside his glory and becoming a human being. Now, Revelation
speaks much of the glory of the throne of God and the glory of
the Lamb. We won't read those for sake of time, but even those
descriptions, we can't imagine, our minds just can't imagine
the glory that our blessed Lord had and has now. Now, we read in the Gospel of
John how that our Lord, before washing the disciples' feet,
it said He laid aside His garments. He removed what he was wearing
and girded himself with a towel. He put aside one garment and
took on another. And so it was when our gracious
Lord came to this earth, he laid aside those splendorous garments
of his majesty and glory and came here to gird himself in
human flesh. And as he did in the washing
of the feet of his disciples, he took on him the form of a
servant, being obedient unto death, we're told, even the death
of the cross. Now, we have nothing with which
to compare the riches of our Lord. When we try to illustrate
it by comparing it to earthly kings, we do it a grave injustice. No example of earthly wealth
is even remotely sufficient to illustrate the glory of our God
and King. before he came to this earth to be born of a virgin.
When we finally see him in glory, when we lay aside this robe of
flesh, only then will we understand how rich he truly was. When that
happens, we'll be like the Queen of Sheba. When she came to see
the glory of Solomon, she said this, it was a true report that
I heard in mine own land of thine acts and thy wisdom. Howbeit,
I believed not the words until I came. And my eyes have seen
it. And behold, the half was not
told me by wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame which I heard. And so it will be 10 times 10
billion times when we see our Lord face to face, when we we
now hear of him and believe in faith. But there will be a time
with our own eyes, we will look upon him And behold the unimaginable in
this flesh, the unimaginable magnificence of our Lord and
Savior. And we'll finally realize then
how rich He truly was before He voluntarily became poor. And next in our text, in 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, we read
this, Yet for your sakes, He became poor. For whose sakes?
Not for everyone, but for those that Paul was writing to at the
church at Corinth. For your sakes. For the sake
of the saints of God. Those chosen of the Father before
the foundation of the world and given to His Son to be His eternal
Bride. For those who were by nature
the children of wrath. For those sakes who were born
with a mind that hated God. that hated anything called God.
For your sakes, who before were described as ungodly. Now we
by nature, we have the same heart and determination of Satan himself.
That's listed in Isaiah 14. There's five statements that
Satan makes which describe us before grace came to us. He said,
I will ascend into heaven. He said, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. He said, I will also set upon
the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. He
said, I will ascend above the clouds or the height of the clouds.
And he said, I will be like the most high. Now, we in our arrogant
pride like to think that we're something people sometimes maybe
be insulted and they'll say, do you know who I am? But men will one day realize
that they are but dust. People like to think they're
the master of their own destiny, but we're so frail that a little
virus that is invisible to the human eye can take our lives.
We like to imagine that we're in control of things, but reality
is we're not in control of anything. Everything that happens in this
life happens because it's already been predetermined by the God
that we worship. But when this verse says that
our Lord became poor, it means that our Savior was poor beyond
anything that we can imagine. His only possessions were literally
the clothes on His back. We read in the last verse of
John chapter 7, it says, And every man went to his own house. And chapter 8 begins with this
verse, Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives. He had No home to go to. Our Lord said in Matthew 8 20,
the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nest, but
the son of man hath not where to lay his head. Unimaginably poor. Now, in first
Samuel two, we read the prayer of Hannah. And in verse seven,
we read this. It says the Lord maketh poor.
and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. Now, I've always read that verse
in the sense of what he does for his children. But those verses or that verse
is a perfect description of what our God did to God the Son. The Lord maketh poor. Our Savior
once said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. And there has never been another
man who ever lived who was more poor in spirit than our blessed
Lord. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And then the verse says, And
maketh rich, which is what God the Father did for his son when
he exalted him and said, Set thou on my right hand until I
make thine enemies thy footstool. And the verse continues, He bringeth
low which is what he was done to the Lord when he became that
eternal sacrifice for his people's sin. And the verse concludes
with, and lifteth up, which describes how our Lord Jesus now has all
power in heaven and in earth, how he has been given a name
which is above every name. And our text says he became poor
It was his deliberate choice. The verse doesn't say that he
was made poor. It says he became poor. He was
one thing, then he became another. He was rich, and then he became
poor. But some would ask, why would
the king of this universe, who needed nothing, who dwelt in
perfect ease and majesty, who for untold ages past enjoyed
unbroken fellowship with the father in the spirit. Why would
he do such a thing? And we have our answer in the
last words of our text for this verse tells us the reason why
that ye his Children that ye through his poverty might be
rich. Ye Those to whom this letter
was written, ye who are the chosen bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we hear this word poverty,
we sometimes think of a homeless person, someone who lacks the
very basics of life, food, shelter, clothing, someone who is completely
destitute and impoverished, someone who spends most of his time thinking
of the food that he has no means to acquire. Now it's no wonder
to me that the Pharisees took exception with Christ claiming
to be the Son of God. You can just imagine this man
dressed in clothing, little better than rags, saying that he was
sent by God to the Israelites. Now anyone that would look on
him had to think that any ambassador of God would at least have the
minimum necessities of life, but yet This one they knew and
looked down on as Joseph's son was even poorer than his daddy.
But regardless of which looks, his actions proved that he was
indeed not just a mere man. That ye through his poverty might
be rich, like the richest man in the world, could become poverty
stricken if he gave away his last dime. So our Lord laid aside
all that he had, and transferred it to our account so that we
are now rich, rich in goodness, rich in righteousness, beyond
our wildest imagination. As rich as Christ himself, think
about that, as rich as Christ himself, children, heirs of God
and joint heirs with Christ, all because he chose to become
poor for our sakes. Turn with me over to Leviticus,
the book of Leviticus. Chapter 25. Leviticus 25. I want to read
one verse. God gave a commandment here in
Leviticus 25, verse 35. It reads thus, And if thy brother
be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee, Then thou shalt
relieve him, yea, though he be a stranger or a sojourner, that
he may live with thee. If thy brother be waxen poor. Now we are called the brethren
of Christ. And we were indeed waxen poor
and fallen into decay. Then the verse says, Then shalt
thou relieve him, which is exactly what our blessed Savior did for
us. He relieved us from that terrible debt that we could never
pay, which we owed for our sins, paying the required price in
full so that now when it comes to sin, we are scot-free. How can we even imagine this?
And then it says, though he be a stranger or a sojourner, a
stranger is how Paul described us in his letter to the Ephesians.
Describing our condition before God's saving grace, Paul wrote
in chapter 2, verse 12, that at time past you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in this world.
Such was our woeful condition. But thanks to Christ becoming
poor for our sakes, we're no longer in that condition. Because verse 19 of the same
chapter of Ephesians says this, Now therefore ye are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the household
of God. And the last words of this verse
in Leviticus says that he may live with thee, which is exactly
what we'll do for eternity, live with our Savior. Now, being made rich by the finished
work of our Lord Jesus Christ, the pouring out of His blood
and the offering of His body to be broken, of His suffering,
the unimaginable wrath of His God when our sins were laid upon
Him, we're now assured that we're in the safest place in this universe.
We are in Christ Jesus, the hymn writer put it well. Though Satan
should buffet, though trial should come, let this blessed assurance
control. That Christ. Has regarded my
helpless estate. And it shed. His own blood. For my soul. making us rich by
becoming poor. Earlier I read that verse in
1 Samuel. The Lord maketh poor and maketh
rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. But the next verse says this. He raises up the poor out of
the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set them
among princes. and to make them inherit the
throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth
are the Lord's, and he has set the world upon him. This describes
what our mighty Savior did for us when he became poor. Like
that good Samaritan that we read of, he picked us up out of the
dust where we lay wounded, nigh unto death, and he lifted us
from the dunghill, the filth in which we dwelt in our natural
state. And he does this to set us among
princes and to make us inherit all the blessings that our God
has to offer to previously worthless sinners. Who are now become the
bride of the high king of heaven, he has made us to inherit the
very throne of glory. And all this is done because
of the marvelous exceeding, abundant, rich, full grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. That grace that has been given
us by our gracious God before the foundation of the world in
our Lord Jesus Christ. Billy, come lead us in a song,
please.