[ ] 12/18/2011 #964

OUR RICHES AT CHRIST'S EXPENSE

2 Corinthians 8:9
INTRODUCTION: We need to be thankful this morning for God’s gift of Jesus to us. Paul wrote in 2
Corinthians 9:15: “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” Before Jesus saved us, we owned
nothing but our sin. If we are saved, we share in Christ’s riches. In Christ Jesus you have “an inheritance
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5) We owe it
all to Jesus!
O Holy Night
O holy night! the stars are brightly shining—
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and darkness pining—
Till He appeared, gift of infinite worth!
Behold the Babe in yonder manger lowly—
’Tis God’s own Son come down in human form:
Fall on your knees before the Lord most holy!

With humble hearts we bow in adoration

Before this Child, gift of God’s matchless love,
Sent from on high to purchase our salvation—
That we might dwell with Him ever above.
What grace untold—to leave the bliss of glory
And die for sinners guilty and forlorn:
Fall on your knees! repeat the wondrous story!

I. POSITION OF CHRIST
A. ETERNAL POSITION. “Lord” (means control, authority, Acts 10:36; Rev. 19:16)
B. EARTHLY POSITION. “Jesus” (means “Savior” Matt. 1:21)
C. EXALTED POSITION. “Christ” (means “anointed One”)

II. POVERTY OF CHRIST

Jesus became poor when He was rich. As the eternal God, Jesus took upon Himself humanity. Jesus Christ
did not lay aside His deity for the simple reason that God cannot cease to be God.

He who was almighty became a helpless infant.

He who was Creator became a dependent child.
He who was the "Word" couldn't say a word.
He who enjoyed the blessing of heaven endured the cross on earth.
He who created all things owned nothing.
He who was rich became poor.
Charles Wesley: Hark the Herald Angels Sing
 Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

A. CHOICE OF CHRIST.
1. Choice to be the Savior.
2. Choice to be a servant.
“For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” John 6:38

“Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for
many.” Matthew 20:28

3. Choice to be a sacrifice.

“Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it
from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This
commandment have I received of my Father.” John 10:17-18

“Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body
hast thou prepared me.” Hebrews 10:5

“For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the
world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Hebrews 9:26

“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God.”
Hebrews 10:12

B. COST TO CHRIST.

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with
glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Hebrews 2:9

“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:4-5

“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no
reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Philip. 2:6-8
Ray Stedman: "Is it not strange that we who call ourselves Christians seek to live as kings, but He who was
the King of Kings lived like a pauper?"

III. PURPOSE OF CHRIST

Christ’s sacrifice began in heaven, when he laid aside His glory and consented to come to earth.
He came to this earth so that we “through his poverty might be rich.”

A. REDEEMPTION FOR THE SINNER.

“Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:14

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:24

Charles Wesley: Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

B. RICHES FOR THE SAINT.

1) Eternal life. "I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish" (John 10:28).

2) Endless relationship. "What shall separate us from the love of Christ," . . . "shall tribulation,
distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword? ....Nay, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us" (Romans 8:35-39).

"Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children
of God" (1 John 3:1).

3) Enduring righteousness. "God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might
become the righteousness of God through him." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

4) Everlasting riches.
“And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the
ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ
Jesus.” Eph. 2:6-7
LESSONS FOR LIFE:
Christmas is our reminder of the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus who was rich became poor so we
may be made rich in Him. He sacrificed Himself so we could be saved. His greatest gift to us is the gift of
Himself, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27)
John McArthur
A wonderful story was told many years ago about a Persian monarch. We would call him a king and they
would call him a Shah. This particular Shah reigned in Persia in a time of great splendor and magnificence
and lived in the midst of all of that wealth and prosperity. But he had a heart for people who were poor and
common, and so he decided that he would dress himself as a poor man, and that he would descend from the
lofty heights of his splendor down to the commonest man that he could find and try to make a friend out of
him. And such a man was a man whose job it was to stoke fires and prepare fires that could then be put into
little containers and taken around the palace to keep people warm. He worked all the time in ashes and soot
and smoke and filth, way, way down in a basement.

The king then put on the garments of a poor man, descended the dark, damp, cellar stairs and came down to
where the man was seated in a pile of ashes, he was called a fireman, appropriately, and he was tending to
his fires. The king sat down beside him dressed in rags himself, and began to talk. At meal time the fireman
produced some coarse black bread and a little bit of water and they ate together and drank together. And
then the Shah went away.

But he came back day after day after day after day, again and again because his heart was filled with
sympathy that eventually was demonstrated to that man in this longing just to be there to share a little bit of
his common and difficult life. He gave the man sweet counsel from his wisdom and experience. This poor
man opened his whole heart and loved his friend, so kind and so wise, and he thought so poor like himself.
At last the emperor thought, "I can't keep this up, I have to tell him who I really am and so I'll tell him and
then I'll ask him what gift he would like from me, now that we're friends." So he said, "You think I'm poor
but I'm not, I am the Shah, your emperor. What would you like?" He expected the man to petition him for
some great thing but he sat, simply gazing in wonder and love. The king said, "Have you understood what
I've told you? I can make you rich. I can make you noble. I can give you a city. I can give you anything.
What do you want?"

The man replied according to the story, "Yes, my lord, I understand. But what is this you have done to leave
your palace and your glory to sit with me in this dark place, to partake of my coarse bread, to care whether
my heart is glad or sorry? Even you can give nothing more precious than that. On others you may bestow
rich presents but to me you have given yourself, it only remains to ask one thing...and that is that you never
withdraw your friendship."