SPEAKER_00: Well, church, this morning we are once again privileged to sit under the preaching of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Brian has chosen for his text this morning.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Stand with me if you will, and I will read the text.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of God to you.
SPEAKER_00: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Brian, please come.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, what a passage of scripture to be able to study today.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go to the Lord once again as we marvel over his kindness to us in the incarnation and just in the fact that we get to be here today for worship.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, we thank you.
SPEAKER_01: We are amazed that you are so gracious, so merciful, so wonderful beyond belief.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we thank you that you have drawn us here for worship today.
SPEAKER_01: And we ask you, as you draw us into the truth of your word, revealed by the illumination of your spirit, that we would be overwhelmed with joy in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That once again we would hear the good news and marvel at the Savior, that we would exalt Him.
SPEAKER_01: Our hearts would be in tune with your will and word as we do this, and that we would leave this place just reflecting on the majesty of the King who came for a lowly people.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this all in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I know that Christmas is just a couple of days from now, and maybe you're one of those who are saying to yourself at this point, okay, I can do this.
SPEAKER_01: It's super busy, but it's almost at an end.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the year's almost at an end, and then things will slow down.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01: You're thankful that this year's almost in the books and that you're ready to move forward into next year.
SPEAKER_01: I just got to get through Christmas first.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe your life seems really hard right now.
SPEAKER_01: Things may seem like they're out of control or just difficult and not at all what you would have expected.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's a great season of life and you're just loving every minute of it.
SPEAKER_01: Either way, no matter where you're at, we need to slow down and take some time to once again reflect on the gift of Christmas, namely Jesus Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_01: As you can recall, over the past couple of weeks, we've been going through a series that has really tried to focus on the gift that Christmas is to God's people.
SPEAKER_01: First, we looked at the salvation that comes to undeserving recipients of his grace by his great mercy as we studied Titus chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: And then last week we saw the glory of being called adopted children of God as we pondered the gift of hope through that adoption, as we looked at a portion of the book of Galatians.
SPEAKER_01: Well, today, as we go to the second letter written to the church in Corinth, we will see what a rich gift we have as we worship together over the incarnation.
SPEAKER_01: In this context, Paul here is speaking of giving, which is of course leading him to verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But for us to truly understand the gift that Christmas is and having this Jesus come to the earth, we first need to understand the cost for Jesus to do this.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus didn't come and do this thing like you and I maybe going across the street to help the elderly neighbors hang their Christmas lights or shovel the snow or stack the wood or some other nice deed that we do for somebody else.
SPEAKER_01: It's not nearly that simple.
SPEAKER_01: It's not even as simple as somebody maybe giving everything they have away to feed the poor or clothe the destitute across our world.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's far more than that.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it is a far greater cost than our minds can actually conceive of.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ, Son of God, God Himself, became poor to do this work.
SPEAKER_01: He became poor to come to the earth on his mission to rescue and redeem and ransom.
SPEAKER_01: And by poor, I don't mean he lost out on the stock market or he lost his job or not that kind of poor.
SPEAKER_01: He became impoverished in that he took on flesh that would suffer and die.
SPEAKER_01: More on that in a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: But as we start diving into our text for today and we reflect upon the cost of the incarnation, I want you to know also up front what grace is.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what Paul says in that verse.
SPEAKER_01: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you today to know that you are going to either learn what grace is for the first time, or you're going to be reminded of what it is and be overwhelmed with joy.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why can I say that?
SPEAKER_01: I don't say that out of any kind of arrogance at all.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about me.
SPEAKER_01: I say that because that is what Paul is telling us here today.
SPEAKER_01: It's as if he is starting this verse, this passage by saying, Hey, here's grace.
SPEAKER_01: Are you ready for it?
SPEAKER_01: It's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: It's eternally stunning.
SPEAKER_01: I can't emphasize it enough.
SPEAKER_01: And so today, as we go through this passage, our goal will just be to simply marvel over the gift of grace, these eternal riches that we acquire through the poverty of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Those words should never go together, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Poverty and Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Only by grace do they match well.
SPEAKER_01: So let's start by looking at first, though, we need to see, and we'll move through the progression of Paul's wording here in this verse, let's look at the eternal wealth of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In one sense of things, Christmas is, again, all about being impoverished of the greatest riches that can ever be imagined by any mind ever created.
SPEAKER_01: And so, in one sense, Christmas is about poverty.
SPEAKER_01: But if you could imagine great wealth, okay?
SPEAKER_01: If we could really imagine what an abundance of wealth look like.
SPEAKER_01: Now, think of that person in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: But the thing is, we're not talking about that kind of wealth, are we?
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not that paper bill you may have in your pocket or in your bank account.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about the shiny piece of metal that we have fevered rushes over in the history of our country.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not talking about the American dream of a nice life, a nice spouse, or as has been said, 2.5 children, whatever that looks like.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know who the 0.5 is in your family.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that nice, you know, colonial style home.
SPEAKER_01: Definitely not talking about an endless supply of whatever you wish, which is of course the end result of the American dream.
SPEAKER_01: That's not true wealth, is it?
SPEAKER_01: Many times it actually ends up being a curse.
SPEAKER_01: Ask anybody who wins a lottery.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not speaking of perceived wealth like what the world will tell us makes us rich.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what Paul's getting at.
SPEAKER_01: You see, if that's what is wealth to us, we come woefully far short of the wealth in which Jesus has always known and existed with and in.
SPEAKER_01: So what is wealth?
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean that Jesus was rich?
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to answer that in three ways, but before we get to that, I want to make it really clear that any answer I give you will in some sense fall short.
SPEAKER_01: It'll fall short of the true riches that Christ enjoyed for an eternity.
SPEAKER_01: We have what the Bible holds out to us, what God gives to us.
SPEAKER_01: But how can our minds ever fully, truly grasp infinite pleasure in heaven in its totality with these minds?
SPEAKER_01: Not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot do that.
SPEAKER_01: So what we're gonna do is just draw from the word what our minds can grasp through what he tells us.
SPEAKER_01: And so, first, wealth, riches, is living with the Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is rich.
SPEAKER_01: Again, when our current world and even evangelical culture tells us that we are what the Bible is all about.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever heard that kind of message before?
SPEAKER_01: That we are really the reason for the gospel, the climax of the story of redemption that the Bible holds out to us?
SPEAKER_01: When we have that too high of an opinion of self, we end up saying, even a popular song of a few years ago, says, God needed us to be fully happy and satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: That somehow, someway, we were created to provide him with complete happiness and joy.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we don't explicitly say this, but this is what we teach when we brush aside passages that teach us the actual reason that Christ came, which is ultimately to bring glory to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: As John 17 tells us in his perfect life and in the saving of sinful souls, God is glorified.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we say that it's all about us, whether we say it with our mouths, we just live that out, when we make the gospel man-centered, we are seeking to reduce the glory of God, volitionally or not.
SPEAKER_01: What we need to have ever before us is the fact that the gospel is God-centered, it's Christ-centered.
SPEAKER_01: We need to remember the gospel, the Christmas account, and the plan of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: We need to remember it is a wonderful benefit to us, but ultimately conceived of and enacted for God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: It's all about Him.
SPEAKER_01: He's the author, He's the goal, He's everything.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we get it backwards, when we do that, when we get it turned around in place of focus primarily on who it is for rather than who it is really about, what happens is that the natural progression of thought leads you to believe that the Father couldn't be happy and content in heaven without us.
SPEAKER_01: And when we do this, we are essentially saying that God is unfulfilled in who he is in his triune nature.
SPEAKER_01: And he's not satisfied in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I say all of that?
SPEAKER_01: When I'm talking about Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Why am I speaking of the need for us to understand our salvation is ultimately about God's glory?
SPEAKER_01: Why is that so important?
SPEAKER_01: When thinking of the fact that Jesus was rich.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's deep and it leads us to have a lot of questions, but why?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're thinking, uh, didn't you say you're speaking of the riches of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: What gives?
SPEAKER_01: Because if we get this part wrong, if we think it's all about us as we flip things on our head on its head, we will miss the richness of Christ's eternal satisfaction with the Father and His heavenly dwelling.
SPEAKER_01: We'll miss it completely.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore, we will end up missing the enormous significance of him leaving the Father's side, his throne, to come down to the earth and take on flesh.
SPEAKER_01: It starts in heaven for us to understand Christmas, for us to understand the riches of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We see ourselves lowly as he is exalted.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to miss the eternally magnificent riches that Christ has always dwelt with and in.
SPEAKER_01: Because our creation and our salvation, they bring him glory, yes and amen.
SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't mean that God was ever without a single ounce of glory before the creation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Even if no eye had ever beheld his beauty, his majesty, his glory, even if no human nor angelic eye had ever had ever, ever, ever beheld him.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean that he isn't already altogether lovely and beautiful as God and glorified.
SPEAKER_01: Same goes for his joyful contentment in who he is, in his triune nature and eternal dwelling place.
SPEAKER_01: And so the richness of his holy habitation cannot be fully conceived of in these finite minds, nor can we pretend to say it's dependent upon us.
SPEAKER_01: God is self-existing and self-satisfied in himself, in his triune being, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And so the richness that Christ willingly, notice that word willingly chose to leave behind, was a richness that truly boggles the mind and sets our hearts on fire and sets them straight when contemplating what Christ left to come to us.
SPEAKER_01: There is no greater amount of wealth than to be God, dwelling within the triangle relationship, as God.
SPEAKER_01: That's wealth.
SPEAKER_01: That's riches.
SPEAKER_01: There is nothing greater than dwelling eternally in the presence of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And so the rich pleasure, the vast wealth of love, the perfection of harmony, the glory that is constantly revealed in their grand love for one another in the Godhead, is divine wealth that we can't truly grasp.
SPEAKER_01: And so eternal pleasure, being rich, is being loved by and dwelling with the Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And so, therefore, moving on to the second part of this, what Jesus' wealth consisted of, his wealth, his riches, is that second part I just said, being loved by the Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: So, first is dwelling with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Now we got, he's loved by the Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's riches.
SPEAKER_01: What does gold have on that?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, the Son, has always perfectly been loved by his Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And again, this is an other world kind of love.
SPEAKER_01: It's a 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love, but an eternal perfection.
SPEAKER_01: We've never seen that outside of God to us.
SPEAKER_01: The reason that this kind of love that we cannot comprehend exists between Jesus and his father is because there is an intimate oneness in the relationship in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that Jesus is God, he's a second member of the Trinity, it proves that he was ultimately rich, not simply because he owns a cattle on a thousand hills.
SPEAKER_01: But the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have always sought to bring honor and glory to one another in all things.
SPEAKER_01: That's a rich existence.
SPEAKER_01: We have to declutter our minds from eternal, or I mean a temporary earthly wealth.
SPEAKER_01: And think about what it means to be rich in the spiritual, eternal, biblical sense of things.
SPEAKER_01: We have to know that even before the angels were created, there was perfect happiness, perfect joy, and perfect harmony in the triune relationship in eternity past.
SPEAKER_01: I know, again, we can't fully comprehend that, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible teaches that.
SPEAKER_01: In eternity past, there was only one thing to enjoy, and that is this perfect God within himself.
SPEAKER_01: And it's the most enjoyable thing that can ever be known, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Now that doesn't mean that God doesn't find pleasure in his creation, but that means that the depths of the rich relationship and therefore dwelling of the Son, Jesus Christ, before creation and before his incarnation, when he came to the earth, is and always will be supernaturally, eternally sublime and loving.
SPEAKER_01: That's how it always was.
SPEAKER_01: And so to have a oneness with the Father is to possess greater riches and joy than any created thing can grasp in the mind or soul.
SPEAKER_01: Eternally loved by the Father as his son.
SPEAKER_01: What riches?
SPEAKER_01: Oneness with the Father is great wealth.
SPEAKER_01: And we get adopted into that as we looked at last week through repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_01: Third part of what Jesus' riches consisted in, and what he left behind, is that he already eternally owned all things.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 1 tells us that he is the author of creation.
SPEAKER_01: It's his.
SPEAKER_01: The heavens declare his glory, the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: The sun itself obeys his call to produce heat.
SPEAKER_01: The stars that fall do so because he commanded it to be that way.
SPEAKER_01: Each cell of each human body does exactly as it is told.
SPEAKER_01: And those cells end up being far more obedient than the host.
SPEAKER_01: Each uniquely created snowflake falls at the exact same rate of speed to its predetermined place, and it either adds to the previous snowflakes or melts on contact.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus Christ said so.
SPEAKER_01: There's great wealth and power in that sovereign rule, isn't there?
SPEAKER_01: And as the creator and sustainer of all things, he possesses and has all authority, all majesty, all power, all glory within creation, as he rules from heaven with surety.
SPEAKER_01: And that's repeated multiple times in the Bible, the end of Jude, for example.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, and yet, Jesus, the Son of God, chose to become poor.
SPEAKER_01: By leaving that place of honor and glory, that place of infinite pleasure and joy, that place of sovereign rule and power.
SPEAKER_01: To become what?
SPEAKER_01: How did he become poor?
SPEAKER_01: What did he become?
SPEAKER_01: Human.
SPEAKER_01: He took on the flesh of his created beings.
SPEAKER_01: From high and lofty with all glory and honor.
SPEAKER_01: To then leave that place and add mere flesh to his deity, to his divinity.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the verse again.
SPEAKER_01: Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor.
SPEAKER_01: For whose sake?
SPEAKER_01: For us.
SPEAKER_01: For your sake.
SPEAKER_01: Many times we think we're pretty great at what we can do, don't we, as humans?
SPEAKER_01: I can do this many push-ups.
SPEAKER_01: I can close the deal, I can speak well in front of people.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it's those old movie lines: I can shoot straight, drive fast, ride hard, fight furiously, love genuinely, sing marvelously, I can fill in the blank, right?
SPEAKER_01: As Puritan Stephen Charnock said, a proud faith is as much a contradiction as a humble devil.
SPEAKER_01: Or as John Calvin said, man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we forget is that in light of Christ, we're just human.
SPEAKER_01: And so for Christ to take on the flesh of a human, to be born of a woman, it meant that he had to become poor compared to what was always true in his richness.
SPEAKER_01: For him to leave the Father's side and take on human flesh means he became poor because he became just like what he created.
SPEAKER_01: He did become man, took on flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And as I said, he was impoverished in this addition to his deity.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians 2 tells us it's absolutely humiliating for Christ to take on flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Again, is that not a humbling thought for us?
SPEAKER_01: Who are just merely human as we think of the fact that Christ being God was humbled by becoming one of us?
SPEAKER_01: It really does crush any pride that tends to well up in us, doesn't it, as we reflect on that?
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: And that's just the beginning of his humiliation, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: The depths of his poor estate weren't fully revealed and shown to us until the cross.
SPEAKER_01: But there's also 30 plus years in between that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came to a poor family in a poor town.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, even when Jesus is walking the earth, it is said by one of his future disciples when being told that Jesus was the Messiah and that he'd come from Nazareth, we hear these words, right?
SPEAKER_01: Can anything good come from Nazareth?
SPEAKER_01: That place?
SPEAKER_01: It was to be his hometown?
SPEAKER_01: And so at his birth, we would expect in our way of thinking that he should have been born into a king's chamber, right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's God.
SPEAKER_01: But no, he's born among lowly animals and shepherds.
SPEAKER_01: And so throughout his life, we see he had to work hard to help provide for the family, we're assuming.
SPEAKER_01: At some point he watched his earthly father die.
SPEAKER_01: That's poor suffering, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: As he entered into his ministry for the most part, we see that he is rejected by most people.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how humiliating is that?
SPEAKER_01: I created you.
SPEAKER_01: I called you into a how dare you speak to me in that way! That's what I would have said.
SPEAKER_01: And I probably would have gone a lot further.
SPEAKER_01: But no, Jesus walked in humility.
SPEAKER_01: He became poor.
SPEAKER_01: And he endured the ridicule, the backstabbing, the violence, the utter rejection from his own people, especially those who were called to be religious priests, those who were supposed to be closest to him.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the Garden of Gethsemane?
SPEAKER_01: Where he's just pouring out his heart along with his own blood over the torment and agony that it was about to face?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how poor was his state in that garden?
SPEAKER_01: As he's handed over by a traitor, as he's brought before Pilate in those sham courts full of lying witnesses and hateful religious leaders, as he's beaten and scourged with leather whips that had those embedded fragments of bone to make sure this flesh is torn.
SPEAKER_01: As this is going on, he was truly poor of friends or help from the world of men.
SPEAKER_01: As he walked that road, with his human strength giving out a crown of thorns digging into his brow and his wounds festering, fever probably creeping in, he had to have help to carry the cross, with all those onlookers watching and poking at him.
SPEAKER_01: He had to take a criminal's instrument up the road to Calvary?
SPEAKER_01: As he's placed upon that cross and nailed through his own flesh that he chose to have happen.
SPEAKER_01: The humiliation really couldn't have been greater.
SPEAKER_01: As he's mocked, as he's spit upon on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: If you're God, come down from there.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, what could he have done in that moment?
SPEAKER_01: Could have called a legion of angels to just obliterate all of humanity, right?
SPEAKER_01: But he didn't.
SPEAKER_01: What does he do instead?
SPEAKER_01: He prayed for us.
SPEAKER_01: He felt the sting of pain and death coming quickly, and he prays for the ones who are doing this to him.
SPEAKER_01: You can't be any more humbled and of poor means than to hang on a cross like this, especially as an innocent man, the perfect God man at that.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not even the worst to come.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what we spoke about already?
SPEAKER_01: The richness of Jesus' eternal existence with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what's the worst thing about Jesus taking on human flesh?
SPEAKER_01: And that's the reason he came.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, he came to die.
SPEAKER_01: And in that death, he absorbed the Father's wrath in our place.
SPEAKER_01: For all of eternity, Jesus has existed with the Father in perfect harmony, beauty, majesty, joy, their relationship as Father and Son, and the Godhead has never had even the slightest argument, let alone disagreement.
SPEAKER_01: I know we don't understand that.
SPEAKER_01: They have truly, perfectly existed as God.
SPEAKER_01: Perfect relationship.
SPEAKER_01: It's something far greater than any of our minds can ever conceive.
SPEAKER_01: But on that cross, when the sky goes dark, the Father's wrath is being poured out on his own son.
SPEAKER_01: That should blow our minds, by the way, every time we hear it, it should baffle us that that would take place.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the father didn't look on his son hanging there and with anger just say, I'm gonna wipe you out.
SPEAKER_01: I will make them pay for this atrocity.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, he pours out his wrath on his own son who's on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Not on us rebels for breaking his law.
SPEAKER_01: Not on the humans for nailing his son to that tree, not on those who blasphemed him over and over again, but on his own son, whom he has loved and been loved by for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: How a poor place he took in place of others.
SPEAKER_01: He took the punishment that should be mine.
SPEAKER_01: I deserve the cross.
SPEAKER_01: I deserve the Father's wrath.
SPEAKER_01: I deserve to be beaten, whipped, scourged, all of it.
SPEAKER_01: I deserve all that should be coming to me for an eternity of torment for what I have done as I have forsaken God.
SPEAKER_01: How the love of God poured out for us.
SPEAKER_01: How does that not bring the Father glory?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, eternal God with the Father, set aside his place to come and take on the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: He became poor so that we could become rich.
SPEAKER_01: Now, not that prosperity gospel nonsense, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Not that garbage.
SPEAKER_01: But the eternal riches of Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_01: That will be the eternal topic of conversation between men and angels in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're going to be speaking of for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: You will be rejoicing in the presence of Christ over the gospel with myriads of voices around you.
SPEAKER_01: What a gift of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Now you tell me what's a better Christmas present than that knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: That leads us to the last part of this verse.
SPEAKER_01: As we've already looked at a little bit, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich.
SPEAKER_01: Who doesn't want to be rich?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus gives us riches.
SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't just stay where he is and hand them out and just start, you know, chucking money out to us.
SPEAKER_01: It's through his poverty that we become rich.
SPEAKER_01: Through Christ, we now have the promise of life.
SPEAKER_01: Life with God in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: We're now loved by the Father in heaven, and now we have oneness with our God in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: So, how do we become rich?
SPEAKER_01: Better yet, how do we go from poverty to riches?
SPEAKER_01: How does one, maybe we say, rags to riches?
SPEAKER_01: In the ultimate understanding of things, what happens is that the poverty is removed and it's replaced by riches, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what the transaction looks like.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's exactly what happens in the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The poverty and burden of living in sin and knowing that eternal damnation is our lot in this life and the life to come, that has to be cast away, that has to be done away with, and we have to be given the rich a state of dwelling with the Most High God, oneness with him.
SPEAKER_01: But the question is, how is that done?
SPEAKER_01: To answer that, we need to look again for a moment at what it means when it says Jesus became poor.
SPEAKER_01: Since he had to become poor so that we could be rich, this means that his poverty and him being a human and living a perfect life equates to us being called rich as that life is credited to our account.
SPEAKER_01: You understand?
SPEAKER_01: We're justified or declared righteous by the Father in heaven as he looks at us through the filter of his son's perfect life, his perfect following of the law that we looked at last week.
SPEAKER_01: It's imputed, it's credited to our account.
SPEAKER_01: And so this pronouncement of righteous or righteousness is necessary to be with God in heaven, to be in the presence of the Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus' poor life that ended up leading to the cross and him dying in our place and feeling the sting of the wrath of the Father as a substitute, the atoning sacrifice, that now means that we can be forgiven of sin.
SPEAKER_01: His poverty and his suffering that began on that first Christmas means that we have the rich reward of having our sins cast as far as the east as from the west.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning that God chose not to hold them over us or punish us for them, since it's already been paid in and through the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's the gift that we have riches through the poverty of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that riches equates itself in justification, the forgiveness of sins, the removal of wrath, eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: And so his temporary poverty and having to endure this life, its temptations, and even death itself means that we get to have an everlasting glory as we bask at him in his presence.
SPEAKER_01: Because as we gaze upon the glory of the one who has come and has been highly exalted in Hebrews 1.3, he's the radiance and dazzling brilliance of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: This proves that we have eternal life instead of eternal death.
SPEAKER_01: And so his willingness to become poor equals our inheritance, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: An eternal treasure.
SPEAKER_01: The eternal rich treasure of basking and gazing upon the king of kings as our faces touch the ground.
SPEAKER_01: I've mentioned this a couple times already in the last few weeks, but I'm going to do it again.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 3 to 5, as it describes the riches that we receive in Christ when we used to be poor.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through a faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, what riches we have in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: An inheritance that has no expiration date on it.
SPEAKER_01: An inheritance that has no defects, no impurities, it's perfect and free of sin stain or corrupting influence.
SPEAKER_01: It's never going to fade in its joy and its beauty.
SPEAKER_01: It will always be just as exciting and brilliant as when it first began.
SPEAKER_01: And it is right now reserved for the redeemed.
SPEAKER_01: You and I, if you're in Christ, in heavenly places in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We have a reservation in heaven that includes a magnificent inheritance, a front row seat to the beauty and grandeur of the king of all creation.
SPEAKER_01: Reserved seats.
SPEAKER_01: And I think those seats probably flip us on our faces anytime Christ has spoken about.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, right now, right now, in this moment, you are being protected for this inheritance by the power of God.
SPEAKER_01: And how did all that come about?
SPEAKER_01: Because in eternity past, it was decided in the divine council of the Triune God's will that the Son, Jesus, himself, God Himself would come to us by becoming incredibly poor.
SPEAKER_01: Again, he became poor so that we could be rich.
SPEAKER_01: What a great exchange for us who become eternal benefactors.
SPEAKER_01: What a gift of grace.
SPEAKER_01: That's God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: As Paul states here, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You know it.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in Christ, you know his grace that is revealed to us.
SPEAKER_01: And that's Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: Christmas is all about receiving a gift, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Through the incarnation of Christ, we receive riches.
SPEAKER_01: Not deserved riches, but in spite of who we are, riches.
SPEAKER_01: Out of his love for his own glory, that kind of riches, so we become rich in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: As he chose to become poor.
SPEAKER_01: I want to finish by telling you a story.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to give you just a snippet of the life or the end of the life of a man named Harold Akinga.
SPEAKER_01: And as Professor Kenneth Ortiz says in his biographical account, when reflecting on the giant and scholar in the faith, Pastor Harold, he says this.
SPEAKER_01: Akinga's preaching, leadership, scholarship, and entrepreneurship were outstanding.
SPEAKER_01: Few evangelical leaders in the 20th century were as influential as Akinga.
SPEAKER_01: Yet in his final moments on the earth, we observe the influential preacher's humility.
SPEAKER_01: When Akinga was dying of cancer in 1985, the elders from Park Street Church came to visit him.
SPEAKER_01: And one of them said this to him to encourage him as he's on his bed.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Just think of all the things that God has done through you.
SPEAKER_01: He's allowed you to minister to millions of people.
SPEAKER_01: He's allowed you to be president of Fuller Theological Seminary and Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.
SPEAKER_01: He allowed you to be one of the founders of the NAE and really the whole evangelical movement.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Akinga did not seem impressed with his own resume.
SPEAKER_01: Then another elder quietly said, Well, Harold, I suggest that when you see the master soon, just say to him, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
SPEAKER_01: And at this, tears began to flow down Akinga's cheeks.
SPEAKER_01: He may have done a lot on this earth that many in the Christian church would have considered a rich life.
SPEAKER_01: But what Harold knew in this moment was that Christ being merciful to a sinner and experiencing that in the presence of Christ himself as the inheritance, that is the epitome of gaining eternal riches.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, do we realize what a gift Christ is?
SPEAKER_01: Do you get it?
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize the richness of his grace toward us sinners?
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter if you have any money.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter if your house is paid off, if you rent your house, if you live in a cardboard mansion.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: Don't get caught up in the American dream.
SPEAKER_01: And leave it there.
SPEAKER_01: Get caught up in the gift of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're in Christ, you're one of the few rich people in the universe.
SPEAKER_01: Not those fleeting temporary things, but eternally rich.
SPEAKER_01: And so I say this to you now.
SPEAKER_01: In light of this, in light of what we see, go.
SPEAKER_01: Not yet, we've got to finish service.
SPEAKER_01: But after the service.
SPEAKER_01: Go and pass out this gift to the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Spread the spiritual wealth as you reflect upon Christ's mercy and graciousness to you.
SPEAKER_01: You are rich because he became poor.
SPEAKER_01: Give that away.
SPEAKER_01: Give your riches away.
SPEAKER_01: Give the message away.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what kind of gift you get for Christmas on Thursday, nothing will ever compare to the richness you have in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 9.
SPEAKER_01: For a child will be born to us.
SPEAKER_01: A son will be given to us.
SPEAKER_01: And the government will rest on his shoulders.
SPEAKER_01: And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_01: There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.
SPEAKER_01: And this is how Isaiah 9 finishes the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
SPEAKER_01: All that.
SPEAKER_01: So that we could become so rich.
SPEAKER_01: So that we could be called sons and daughters of the Most High God.
SPEAKER_01: What grace has been bestowed on us.
SPEAKER_01: What mercy.
SPEAKER_01: What rich grace that Christ gives to lowly, poor sinners.
SPEAKER_01: And all of it, all of it accomplished by the very zeal of the Lord of angel armies.
SPEAKER_01: And so I say again to you today as you think about the richness you have if you're in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we thank you that in your eternal plan, in the redemptive plan conceived of before the foundations of the universe, that you chose to send your son.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we thank you that your son would become this poor for us.
SPEAKER_01: Lowly wretched sinners.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for the riches that we now have in Christ, the hope of redemption, the gift of adoption, the wonderful beauty of a life spent forever with the King of all kings.
SPEAKER_01: May this Christmas continue to be a time of worship for us all as we reflect upon the gift that Jesus Christ is.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray this all in his name.
unknown: Amen.