You turn in your Bible again
to 2 Corinthians chapter 8, and let's read verse
9 one more time. And then we'll come back and
look at this verse in some detail. For you know, now he's writing
to believers, believers who lived there in Corinth, who've been
made new creatures in Christ, who were called by the gospel
of Christ, who were called out of darkness, translated into
the kingdom of God's dear Son. He says, you know, you know this. You've experienced this. You
believe this. This is your life. You know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ manifested by this, that though
He was rich, rich beyond description. Yet, yet, for your sake, he became
poor. That you, you who are nobodies,
you who are bankrupt, dead, dog sinners, that you, through his
sacrifice, through his poverty, through the shedding of his blood,
his death, that you might be rich eternally in all spiritual
blessings. You know what we have here in
verse 9? We have the gospel in a verse. We have the whole gospel declared,
the theme of all of God's scripture. We have this condensed into one
verse. It's much like that verse we
read earlier in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. For you know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet
for your sake He became poor, that God made Him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made to righteousness of God
in Christ Jesus." Substitution. Satisfaction. Martin Luther had
a way of calling these verses that tell so much of the message
of Christ and Him crucified, being made sin for us. He called
these verses little Bibles. Little Bibles. And here we have
the whole message of God's Word summed up just in a few phrases. You know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. His grace. His blessing. His mercy to His people. He said you know something of
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And believers do. Believers have
no doubt in their heart about the wonderful graciousness of
our blessed Savior toward His own. His wonderful compassion. His name is called wonderful.
His wonderful compassion toward His own. His graciousness, mercy
unto His own. It says in John 13-1, having
loved His own, He loved them to the end. And that word there,
end, can be rendered, He loved them in perfection. He loved
them in completeness. He loved them in fulfillment
of all God's Word, God's Law. Having loved His own with an
everlasting love, He loved them with perfectness. Perfectness
and completeness. You who are made objects of His
grace, You know the Lord is gracious. We believe, as it says in Acts
15 verse 11, Peter stood up there in that council that day and
said, we believe through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
that we shall be saved even as God saved those Gentile dogs
by grace and grace alone. You who are recipients of His
grace know that the Lord is This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that the Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners of whom I, the chief one, you who are objects of His
grace, you who have received the grace of God, you know that
the Lord is indeed gracious. You who are justified by His
grace know something of the Lord's justifying, redeeming grace given
unto us, for we are justified freely by His grace through the
redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You who know this, you
know this, all believers do, because of that grace of God
in our heart that we have experienced. As Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. See what he's saying there in
verse 9? You know, you've experienced this in your heart, in your life. You know the Lord is merciful. The Lord is gracious. We glory not merely in the doctrine
of grace. We glory in the Christ of the
doctrine, the grace of God's mercy to sinners in Christ. We
glory in our Lord who is the absolute sovereign, who is gracious,
who is merciful, who is loving to his own. You remember the
words of our Lord spoken unto Moses on Mount Sinai? Here's what the Lord declared
to his servant on that day. The Lord, the Lord God merciful,
gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and
sin. Our God when manifest in the
flesh, He declared this, come unto me all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. You who believe the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ know something of His love, His mercy, and His
grace unto you. You've experienced it in your
heart and in your life. Is this not true? You know it
is. Oh, the blessed, the blessed, blessed love God has bestowed
upon His Beloved, now are we sons of God. Beloved, now are
we sons of God. Now, let me give you a three-point
outline on this one verse here. A wonderful truth and reality
is eternal riches. Secondly, a more wonderful truth,
yet for your sake He became poor, and thirdly, a most wonderful
truth, that you through His poverty might be really made heirs of
God and joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, we're
just traveling through this life. Everything we have here is temporary,
temporal things. We're told not to set our heart
upon these things, but set our affections on things above, not
on the things of this earth. Everything we have here, every
relationship we have here among men, will be severed one day. Let's consider, first of all,
a wonderful truth, a wonderful reality. How about His riches? His eternal riches. The Lord
Jesus Christ, being the eternal Son of God, or eternally God
the Son, has and possesses all things. All riches are His. He is infinitely, eternally rich,
for He is very God of very God. None can be compared with Him,
for He has boundless wealth, rich beyond our imagination,
rich beyond our description. There is none like Him. Let's talk about His riches for
a moment. He's rich in possession. He is
rich in possessions. You see, He created all things
by the Word of His power. He owns all things. All things are His. He made them. He created them. They are for
Him. Turn over here to Colossians
chapter 1. Let me show you this. Colossians chapter 1. Rich in
possessions. The Father loved what the Son
had given all things into His. And Colossians chapter 1, verse
15, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn or Lord of
every creature, for by him are all things created there in heaven
that are in the earth, visible, invisible, whether they be thrones
or dominions, principalities or powers, all things were created
by him and for him. He is before all things, but
by him all things are held together, consist He is the head of the
body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell, rich in possessions."
The Word of God declares, this is Haggai 2.2. He said, the silver
is mine and the gold is mine. He owns everything. We have in
reality nothing. Everything is His. Psalm 24 declares
that earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world
and they that dwell therein. He hath founded upon the seas
and established it upon the floods. So we're over here to Hebrews
chapter 4, Hebrews chapter 1 rather, Hebrews chapter 1. The earth
is the Lord, and the fullness thereof, the world and they that
dwell therein. In Hebrews chapter 1, look at verse 1, God who in sundry
times and divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir, owner of all things, by whom
also He made the worlds, who being the brightness of His glory,
the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word
of His power. When He by Himself purged our
sin, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
He owns all things. He is rich in possessions. He's rich in the perfection of
His divine nature. Rich in the perfection of His
divine nature. We read just a moment ago in
Colossians 119, "...in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily." Let me give you several things about the perfection of
His divine nature in which He is rich. He is rich in holiness. Rich in holiness. Exodus 15, Moses and the children
of Israel, when they were delivered from Pharaoh, when they crossed
through the Red Sea on the other side, watched Pharaoh and all
of his armies drown. Do you remember that song they
sang that day? They sang these words, Who is
like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee? Glorious in holiness, fearful
in praises, doing wonders. The psalmist said, holy and reverent
is thy name, O Lord. Isaiah wrote those words in Isaiah
6, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and
lifted up. And the seraphims around the
throne of glory cried, holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts,
the whole earth is full of His glory. He is rich in holiness. How about His power? He's rich
in power, isn't He? Does He have all power? Does
He have some power? Does He have none? He has all
power. He has all power in heaven and
earth. He is rich in power. He is rich in His authority. His authority is far-reaching. It reaches every creature, every
dominion. Subject unto His authority and
His power. He has all power in heaven and
in earth. Whatsoever the Lord pleases,
whatever He pleases to do, that's what He does. Why? He has all
power. All power in heaven and earth.
He is rich in power. He has all power in creation.
All power in providence. How about in salvation? He has
all power over all flesh. to give salvation to as many
as He will. He is rich in the sovereignty
of His power. He possesses all things. He is
rich in holiness. He is rich in power. How about
His love? Is He rich in love? Oh, I tell
you, He's rich in love. Let me show you so. How much
so? Turn to Romans chapter 5. He's
rich in love. Rich in love. Here in his love,
John said, not that we love God, but that he loved us. And that
he sent his son to be the sacrifice for our sins. He is rich in love. Romans 5, look at verse 6. For when we were yet without
strength, without God, without hope, in due time, according
to the time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for
a righteous man will one die, yet for a good man some would
even dare to die." Look at verse 8 now. Romans 5, "...but God
commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us." That's God commended love. Turn over here
to Romans 8. He talks about this love of God in Romans 8. Verse 38, "...for I am persuaded,
He said, We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. In
verse 37 of Romans 8, verse 38, For I am persuaded that neither
death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor power, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is rich in love,
rich in power, rich in holiness, rich in possessions. How about
His mercy? Is He rich in mercy? What does
the Word say? Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Look at
verse 4. But God, who is rich in mercy,
He's rich in mercy. You cannot exhaust His mercy. I'm going to fall before His
sovereign throne, the one who has all power, and I'm going
to beg for mercy. You know why? He's rich in mercy. You know why? He delights to
show mercy. But God who is rich in mercy
for His great love, wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
are you saved. And He has raised us up together
and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ, that
in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of
His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. He is
rich in mercy, rich in love, rich in power. You know what
else? He is rich in redemption, isn't
He? Redemption. He's able to redeem us from all
our sin. He is rich in redemption. You
know this psalm very well. Psalm 130, Let Israel hope in
the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous
redemption. You cannot exhaust His redeeming
power. the power of His blood. It has
infinite value and eternal value. He is rich in salvation. We studied
in Psalm 3, verse 8, Salvation belongeth unto the Lord. Thy
blessing is upon thy people. You see something of the richness
of our Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot press into the Word
rich all that the Lord Jesus Christ is. He is more than rich. He is more than great. He is
more than grand. He is God Almighty. He is God
our Savior. For you know the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know something of His eternal
riches as He is described in what we call God's Word, God's
Book, the Bible. But you know what we can say?
The hat's not been told. I've not told a fraction of His
riches, all His eternal riches, of His power, His holiness, His
wisdom, His glory. He can go on and on and on talking
about the riches of His person, of His work. But let's move on. The second thing is this. Yet, get a hold of this amazing,
glorious truth. Yet, for your sake, he became
poor." Poor. Behold is poverty, a more wonderful
truth. Yet, for your sake, he became
poor. Poor. For whose sake? For the bride. He loved the church and gave
himself for it. He died for his bride. that He
might wash her from all her sin. The Lord loved the church and
gave Himself for it. He died for the church. Here
in this verse, in this phrase, yet for your sake He became poor,
we learn something of His deep poverty. Here we see something
of what the old timers used to call condescending grace of our
great God and Savior as He was manifest in the flesh. And that's
what he's talking about here. He impoverished Himself with
our humanity. He took humanity into union with
His divine and perfect nature. The old theologians called Him
the God-Man Mediator. He impoverished Himself with
our humanity. Although He never stopped being
God when He was manifest in the flesh, He became what He was
not. He was never flesh before. He
took a body specially prepared by God Almighty, and God Almighty
inhabited that body. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace, and truth. We see something of
His eternal riches, and yet we see something as His God manifests
in the flesh of His total poverty. How can you describe that? The
difference between the richest man that you know, that you know
of, who would you say that is, materially speaking? The richest
man in this world, this wife, may be Bill Gates. And the poorest man in this life,
whoever that may be, is nothing compared to the difference between
Christ in glory, the glory of His Godhood, Godhead, and Christ
in His humiliation as a real man. The difference is altogether
immeasurable. His poverty. You cannot fully
declare His riches, nor can you fully explain, I can't, His poverty. I can declare it to some measure.
We cannot fully comprehend how high He is as God, and how low
He stooped to become us. For such a high priest became
us. who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separate from sin. How low was he when he cried
from Calvary Street in his poverty, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? You hear and you see something
of his poverty as he is forsaken of God. I want
you to turn and read these Scriptures with me. It will be a blessing
for you. Turn to Romans 8 one more time. In these three Scriptures that
I'm going to read, we see at least these three things. We
see the richness of His deity. We see His poverty. And then
we also see the blessings of that sacrifice. Look at Romans
8 verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who were in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. 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, and it was weak through
the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh. There's the fruit of it, verse
4, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in
us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, that the
righteousness of the law might be honored, might be fulfilled. Turn to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2 talks again
about His deity, talks again about His humanity, His poverty,
and then the glories of the riches that we have through Christ Jesus. Philippians chapter 2, verse
5. Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, for He is God, but made
Himself of no reputation. He emptied Himself. He made Himself
of no reputation. He took upon Him the form of
a servant poor. and was made in the likeness
of men. You see His poverty, His humanity, His deity? Read on. And being found in fashion
as a man, He humbled Himself, became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. There is His poverty. Now look
at the richness of it, the glory of it. Wherefore God also hath
highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every
name, that at that name of Jesus Every knee should bow if things
in heaven and things under the earth, and every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father. One other text. Hebrews 2. Turn over there. Hebrews 2. We see again His deity. We see again His humanity. And
we see again His sacrifice. and the glory of it. Hebrews
chapter 2, look at verse 13. Behold, I and the children which
God hath given me, for as much then as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same
poverty, that through death he might destroy him that had power
of death, or who introduced sin, that is, Satan himself, the devil,
he destroyed him and delivered them, verse 15, who through fear
of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily
he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him
the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful, faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make atonement for the sin of the people, reconciliation. For in that He Himself has suffered,
being tempted, He is able to save them who are tempted." He
became identified with our humanity in His poverty. He knew weariness
in body. He hungered as a real man. He
thirsted. He knew pain, grief. Man of sorrow
is acquainted with grief. He was tempted, tested in all
things, yet without sin. He became identified not only
with our humanity, but He also became identified with something
else that we read about here. Sin. Sin. You say, how is that, preacher? That is, our sin, the sin of
God's elect, were laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. God made Him
that particular sacrifice for sin as the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God, John
said. The Lamb that God provided. The
Lamb who is God Himself. He identified with our humanity.
He identified with our sin as our sin offering before God. Now behold his poverty as he
hangs on Calvary's tree for the sin of God's people. Stripped
of all possessions, stripped naked on that tree. Forsaken of all his disciples,
Peter and John fled. The rest of them fled. Forsaken
of God? Why was he forsaken of God? God's
too holy to look upon sin with favor. Our sin was laid upon
Christ, made sin, and God could not look on Him. He's bearing
our sin in His own body on the tree. And it's just not that
He's carrying the load in a mere legal way, but in reality,
He became the load of sin itself. He became the mass of sin itself. And He justly died under the
weight and guilt of that sin as it was laid on Him. He was
made sin for God's people. That's poverty. That's poverty. He was made, it says in Galatians
3, He was made a curse for us. Earthen is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. That's why He was hung there,
being made sin for us. In Psalm 40, the Lord speaks
these words, Mine iniquities have taken hold upon Me. He calls
the sin of God's own laid on Him. He calls those sins His. And they really were laid on
Him. He said, my iniquities have taken
hold upon me so that I'm not able to look at them. They are
more than the hairs of my head. He impoverished Himself with
our humanity and with our sin. And by that one sacrifice of
sin for sin, He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
And notice, it's for your sake, for your sin, for your transgression,
for your iniquity that He undergoes. this deep, deep poverty for sin. The words of Jeremiah in Lamentation
12. Do you remember? Lamentation
12, chapter 1. Is it nothing to you, all ye
that pass by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger? In the
day of his fierce anger? wherewith God had afflicted him?
Why did God afflict him? Why did the sword of God's justice
plunge into the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
tree? Because he was made sin for us.
There is his deep poverty. Look back at the text again.
Let me give you this third thing. I'll let you go. He said, For
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
was rich, Yet for your sake he became poor, that you through
his poverty might be rich." Rich. Here's the most wonderful truth. The riches we have in Christ
Jesus. I went back and found a sermon
that Pastor Mahan preached from this text back in 1975. And the
title he used for that message was this, How I Became the World's
Richest Man. You're looking at, right now,
you're looking at the world's richest man. For what's through
the head is through the body. What he is, that's what the believer
is. An heir of God and a joint heir
with Christ. Now this is not talking about
physical, material, and temporal riches, believers in Christ Jesus
are blessed with all eternal and spiritual blessings in the
heavenly in Christ Jesus. Notice carefully, we are blessed
with the abundance of blessings through, notice that you, through
His poverty, not through ours, through His work, through His
merit, to His righteousness. It's always through Christ that
we're blessed. It's always because of Him that
we're blessed. And it's always in Christ Jesus
that believers are blessed. Here we see His willingness to
become what He was not, sin, in order to make us what we are
not by nature, righteous, and to redeem us from all our iniquity. The believer in Christ is lifted
up so high, we read that in Ephesians 2, because he was dragged down
so low with our sin, with our guilt. Imagine all the sin of
God's elect laid upon Him. We're going to study about that
in Mark 14 next week when He prays in the garden as our sin
was being made known unto Him and revealed unto Him and manifest
upon Him. And His sweat became great drops
of blood as He anguishes under our guilt and judgment laid on
Him. The believers lifted so high
because He was dragged down so low. We've been filled with all
spiritual blessing because He was empty in poverty. We live because He died. He said,
I'm come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.
The Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep. We are blessed
because He was cursed of God. We are made righteous because
He was made sin for us. We're set at liberty because
He was bound by our sin and God's law and God's justice upon Him. And by that sacrifice, we're
set free. We are made nigh by the blood
of Christ because He shed His own blood to redeem us from all
sin. The blood of Christ cleanses
us from all sin. We receive all spiritual blessings
as mercy beggars at His throne. No wonder He tells us to come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. The believer in Christ Jesus
possesses all spiritual blessings. God who spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely Eternally give us all things, everything I need to
stand before God justified, holy and right, provided fully and
eternally in Christ Jesus. The Lord will provide, able to
meet all our needs according to His riches in glory through
Christ Jesus. Peter put it this way, talking
about our inheritance in Christ Jesus. He said, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His
abundant mercy has begotten us again into a living hope by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away, that's reserved
in heaven for you. Now think about this. There is not one blessing, spiritual
blessing, that we enjoy as believers that is not through the blood
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, not one. Thanks be unto God for that unspeakable
gift of His love unto His own. As we begin this new year, may
we always be mindful of His riches of his poverty and of the spiritual
blessings we enjoy through our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, 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. Well, the Lord bless you and
keep you in the days to come.