All Praise To Thee, Eternal Lord (2Co 8:9)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:03.640 Well, please remain standing. I'm going to read just one verse. Second 2 00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:09.669 Corinthians, Chapter Eight, verse nine. This is the verse on which the 3 00:00:09.789 --> 00:00:17.070 Hymn we have just sung is based, or at least is connected very intimately 4 00:00:17.190 --> 00:00:25.059 with a second Corinthians eight, verse nine. For you know the grace of 5 00:00:25.140 --> 00:00:30.980 our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he 6 00:00:31.140 --> 00:00:37.770 became poor so that you, by his poverty, might become rich. Praise 7 00:00:37.770 --> 00:00:48.929 be to God, you may be seated. Is Him that we've just sung, 8 00:00:49.929 --> 00:00:53.439 thou who wast rich beyond all splendor, and the one will sing after 9 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:58.439 the sermon as well, all praise to the eternal Lord. Both focus on 10 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:06.030 this amazing theme. It's such a simple thing, but it is very deep 11 00:01:07.390 --> 00:01:14.870 and sometimes I come across, sometimes often I come across these things in scripture 12 00:01:14.950 --> 00:01:21.060 that are so simple, I'm so simply said and so simply stated I wish 13 00:01:21.099 --> 00:01:25.500 I could just read them and walk away because they're so true and they're so 14 00:01:25.700 --> 00:01:30.420 plain on their on their surface. But I of course I know the benefit 15 00:01:30.780 --> 00:01:34.569 a personally, of of meditating and sitting on things a little while, of 16 00:01:34.730 --> 00:01:38.810 having them impressed on my heart, and I hope to do the same for 17 00:01:38.930 --> 00:01:46.609 yours. Tonight. This great theme that Jesus, as great as he was 18 00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:53.159 in his heavenly glory and his kingly glory, a became man, as we 19 00:01:53.239 --> 00:02:01.349 read in Philippians, he humbled himself, he did something humiliating even, and 20 00:02:01.510 --> 00:02:06.950 while on this earth, he was shamed, he was mocked, he was 21 00:02:07.150 --> 00:02:13.949 despised, he was broken, he was crucified, he was buried, all 22 00:02:14.030 --> 00:02:23.259 of these things that I did not belong to him. As the second person 23 00:02:23.379 --> 00:02:30.370 of the Trinity, God only deserves our praise, our wonder our obedience. 24 00:02:30.289 --> 00:02:37.729 And yet we, as humanity, entreated him most poorly. We did everything 25 00:02:37.930 --> 00:02:43.090 the opposite that we ought to have done. This was no accident, we 26 00:02:43.210 --> 00:02:46.199 read in scripture. Was No accident that Jesus did these things, that Jesus 27 00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:53.199 allowed this to happen and even did it purposely, intentionally. No, though 28 00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:57.000 he was rich, as Paul writes, and second Corinthie and s eight, 29 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:02.870 for your sake, he became poor. Jesus says something similar in Matthew, 30 00:03:02.949 --> 00:03:07.750 Chapter Twenty, verse Twenty Eight, even as the son of man came to 31 00:03:07.909 --> 00:03:12.789 be served, or came not to be served but to serve and to give 32 00:03:12.900 --> 00:03:21.259 his life as a ransom for many to impress this, this point, so 33 00:03:21.340 --> 00:03:24.340 that we might feel it deeply within our bones, so that we might even 34 00:03:24.460 --> 00:03:30.090 respond in our lives and bring forth the fruit of what this means for those 35 00:03:30.129 --> 00:03:35.370 who trust in this Jesus. I want you to reflect just for a little 36 00:03:35.370 --> 00:03:44.560 bit on this question. How rich was Jesus? How rich was he when 37 00:03:44.599 --> 00:03:50.240 he became poor again? This is a question that you sort of struggle to 38 00:03:51.319 --> 00:03:54.479 even desire to answer in a way, because you know how impossible it's going 39 00:03:54.560 --> 00:04:00.110 to be to state this. It's like asking how much knowledge doesn't all knowing 40 00:04:00.229 --> 00:04:05.629 God have? Go ahead and describe that. How much power does an omnipotent, 41 00:04:05.750 --> 00:04:14.740 all powerful God have? Go ahead and give that a try. Well, 42 00:04:14.740 --> 00:04:23.060 let's try just a little bit. If we take human metaphors, ways 43 00:04:23.100 --> 00:04:27.050 of thinking and and sort of by extension, try to think, or at 44 00:04:27.050 --> 00:04:31.009 least scratch the surface a little bit, of the wealth of God and the 45 00:04:31.170 --> 00:04:39.399 glory of of Jesus. As the sun, you might think about how wealthy 46 00:04:39.399 --> 00:04:43.680 he was in terms of his possessions. Right, this is a way that 47 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:48.959 we often measure a wealth one's possessions. A rich person, if they are 48 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:55.949 putting their wealth into possessions. Often have more things, right, the simple 49 00:04:56.069 --> 00:05:01.550 thing. More bedrooms, more houses, more servants, more countries. They 50 00:05:01.589 --> 00:05:06.500 own little things, big things, all kinds of things. And more than 51 00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:12.300 just owning a lot of things, a person who has a lot of wealth 52 00:05:12.339 --> 00:05:19.220 and their possessions also controls those ands right. They are able to do with 53 00:05:19.379 --> 00:05:25.089 them what they want. It's hardly valuable to own something but then to not 54 00:05:25.209 --> 00:05:28.970 really have control over it. It's not really ownership, or at least not 55 00:05:29.050 --> 00:05:33.329 very strong ownership. But in human when we speak of human beings, even 56 00:05:33.370 --> 00:05:39.600 though wealthiest people that we could even imagine up, we realize that there are 57 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:46.279 limits to human wealth. There are boundaries, boundaries that are impossible to trespass, 58 00:05:46.360 --> 00:05:53.350 impossible to control or are not worth the cost to extend. You might 59 00:05:53.389 --> 00:05:58.870 imagine a King of a great empire. Right, as far as he can 60 00:05:58.990 --> 00:06:02.470 see, maybe he could travel for days and days and days and not reach 61 00:06:02.629 --> 00:06:09.339 the end, but eventually somewhere is the end. There's a border, there's 62 00:06:09.339 --> 00:06:14.860 a boundary. At some point he's going to have to protect that boundary and 63 00:06:15.019 --> 00:06:19.209 say I heve and protect what is his control, what is his and even 64 00:06:19.250 --> 00:06:24.449 if he decides that he could go further, but chooses not to even there. 65 00:06:24.490 --> 00:06:29.410 There's a limitation. He's deciding that there's something it's just not worth the 66 00:06:29.610 --> 00:06:34.120 cost to take that extra piece to conquer that other country. You can cut 67 00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:38.480 it different ways, but the point is this. No matter how far you 68 00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:43.519 extend out a person's wealth or a country's wealth or any kind of wealth that 69 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:49.910 belongs to humanity, they're always boundaries on that. For God this is not 70 00:06:50.069 --> 00:06:57.269 so. Psalm fifty, for example, says in verses ten, Eleven and 71 00:06:57.389 --> 00:07:03.220 twelve. For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a 72 00:07:03.379 --> 00:07:08.939 thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves 73 00:07:09.100 --> 00:07:13.019 in the field is mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell 74 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:20.610 you, for the world and its fullness are mine. An amazing picture, 75 00:07:21.370 --> 00:07:27.449 each one of those phrases, opening up our minds to another aspect of God's 76 00:07:28.329 --> 00:07:33.480 ownership, his his power over all things, from the tiniest little things that 77 00:07:33.639 --> 00:07:38.000 move in the field, when you hear a rustle in the grass and you 78 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:42.839 wonder what was that, God knows what it was and it belongs to him, 79 00:07:43.920 --> 00:07:47.829 to the cattle that you might see walking about grazing around, every beast 80 00:07:47.990 --> 00:07:55.870 of the forest. It all belongs to him. The world and it's fullness 81 00:07:56.990 --> 00:08:03.980 is mine, he says, and Psalm Eleven, we read the heavens are 82 00:08:03.100 --> 00:08:09.620 yours. The Earth also is yours. The world and all that is in 83 00:08:09.740 --> 00:08:16.649 it, you have founded them. You can also judge the wealth of a 84 00:08:16.769 --> 00:08:22.170 person by the splendor of his or her possessions. Imagine someone with a collection 85 00:08:22.290 --> 00:08:28.319 of something. Maybe you have a collection of something, I know you do. 86 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:33.480 I've talked to some of you about your collections. Well, what's valued 87 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:41.590 in a collection of things? expansiveness, variety, rarity of the items, 88 00:08:41.710 --> 00:08:50.190 uniqueness, the value of various pieces in the collection. What if I told 89 00:08:50.309 --> 00:08:56.940 you that I had a coin, every coin that had ever been made? 90 00:08:56.980 --> 00:09:01.620 Be kind of an impressive thing. Or if I said I had every moth 91 00:09:01.820 --> 00:09:07.259 or every flower that ever existed, I had collected it into a collection. 92 00:09:09.139 --> 00:09:13.529 Of course, no one has everything, even of one tiny little sliver of 93 00:09:13.690 --> 00:09:24.289 creation, but God's creation he belongs. Everything, belongs to him. Everything 94 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:28.720 that he wants he has, and anything that he doesn't want doesn't exist. 95 00:09:31.159 --> 00:09:35.159 He has everything, and the value of his collection, the splendor of it, 96 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:41.190 is manifest in every way. It's expansiveness, the variety of the world 97 00:09:41.269 --> 00:09:46.549 and the fullness of it, the uniqueness the rarity of some things. You 98 00:09:46.629 --> 00:09:54.220 might think of the Grand Canyon or rainbow or tiny rare mushroom that's only found 99 00:09:54.259 --> 00:09:58.940 in a certain corner of the world, or certain aspects of creation that we 100 00:10:00.059 --> 00:10:05.620 don't even know about that are so rare and they belong to the Lord. 101 00:10:07.250 --> 00:10:09.450 Then, of course, wealth can be measured not only in its splendor and 102 00:10:09.570 --> 00:10:16.490 its value, but also in one's relationship to those possessions. A truly wealthy 103 00:10:16.490 --> 00:10:22.559 person is not controlled by their possessions. What does it benefit a man to 104 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:28.240 gain the whole world but lose his soul? What value is in that? 105 00:10:28.120 --> 00:10:33.600 If you have all of these wonderful things but then you're controlled by them, 106 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:37.710 well, they're not really all that valuable anymore because you've lost the most important 107 00:10:37.750 --> 00:10:46.149 thing of all. The value of possessions are cheapened when they gain power over 108 00:10:46.190 --> 00:10:52.220 us. Not So for God. When we think about the wealth of God, 109 00:10:52.379 --> 00:10:56.620 the possessions of God, he is never ruled by them. He is 110 00:10:56.779 --> 00:11:03.980 always ruling them and ruling over them. If God wants there to be a 111 00:11:03.529 --> 00:11:07.929 moth in this part of the field, there will be a moth. If 112 00:11:07.009 --> 00:11:11.490 God wants the trees to grow and this part of the forest they will grow. 113 00:11:11.610 --> 00:11:16.009 He has never moved back and forth, he is never wondering what will 114 00:11:16.049 --> 00:11:22.200 happen. As it says somewhat snarkily in the Psalm fifty. If if I 115 00:11:22.360 --> 00:11:26.600 were hungry, I wouldn't tell you because I have everything that I want. 116 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:33.029 Or hear God's Word and Exodus Nine hundred and twenty nine, Moses saying, 117 00:11:33.070 --> 00:11:35.830 as soon as I go out from the city, I will stretch my hands 118 00:11:35.870 --> 00:11:39.750 to the Lord, the thunder will cease and there will be no more hail, 119 00:11:41.230 --> 00:11:46.830 so that you may know the earth is the Lord's. If God wants 120 00:11:46.870 --> 00:11:50.379 Hail, there will be hail. If God wants locusts, there will be 121 00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:54.899 locusts. If he wants frogs, there will be frogs. Whatever God wants, 122 00:11:54.940 --> 00:12:00.379 he has. His possessions do not control him. He can try. 123 00:12:00.379 --> 00:12:03.889 He controls them, he moves them where he wants, he makes them act 124 00:12:03.929 --> 00:12:13.450 according to his will. How rich it's, God Almighty. One last thing. 125 00:12:13.529 --> 00:12:18.480 As you consider these various aspects of wealth, you might finally consider, 126 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:26.559 and we could think of more, the dwelling place of God, the Heaven 127 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:33.190 Above the Heavens, the Heaven of heavens, Deuteronomy Fourteen, the old to 128 00:12:33.269 --> 00:12:37.710 the Lord, your God, belong the Heaven and the Heaven of heavens and 129 00:12:37.870 --> 00:12:43.149 the Earth with all that is in it. If you go to passages like 130 00:12:43.820 --> 00:12:50.700 Ezekiel, and maybe I won't read this now, but I'll let you go 131 00:12:50.899 --> 00:12:54.820 there on your own, Isekiel one hundred and twenty five through twenty eight, 132 00:12:54.019 --> 00:12:58.570 there's similar descriptions and other of the prophets, and also in exodus twenty four. 133 00:13:00.370 --> 00:13:03.809 But they're their vision. Is described of Ezekiel being caught up into the 134 00:13:03.889 --> 00:13:09.730 Throne Room of God and that we get this description of Sapphire paved courts that 135 00:13:09.809 --> 00:13:13.240 we sung in the in the hymn here. Let me see if I can 136 00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:20.399 find it. Sat you're right in the first verse, Sapphire Paved Courts for 137 00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:26.230 a stable floor. Right. This heavenly places, the Throne Room of God 138 00:13:26.429 --> 00:13:33.389 with a rainbow over it and the angels guarding and standing around the throne and 139 00:13:33.470 --> 00:13:39.389 and the glory of the Lord filling the room and the ground paved with these 140 00:13:39.629 --> 00:13:46.940 precious jewels. Amazing and glorious. This is God's Throne Room and he is 141 00:13:48.059 --> 00:13:56.490 the most glorious thing in it. But of all the possessions of the Lord, 142 00:13:56.490 --> 00:13:58.169 of all the glory of the Lord, what do you think is the 143 00:13:58.370 --> 00:14:07.129 greatest of them all? The Mighty Blue Wail? Maybe the Cedars of Lebanon? 144 00:14:07.690 --> 00:14:13.200 Perhaps those beautiful things that we see deep out in space, or maybe 145 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:20.399 just the flowers in the field after a rain. What the Bible says is 146 00:14:20.600 --> 00:14:28.110 that the greatest, most treasured possession of the Lord is you. Out of 147 00:14:28.190 --> 00:14:35.029 all the things in the world that he came to die for, it was 148 00:14:35.149 --> 00:14:43.100 you, like Moses, who gave up all the splendors of Egypt for something 149 00:14:43.139 --> 00:14:52.379 greater. Jesus gave up far more than Moses ever did, the glories of 150 00:14:52.500 --> 00:14:58.450 Heaven so that he might come and die for us. Thou who wast rich 151 00:14:58.649 --> 00:15:07.480 beyond all splendor, all for Love Sake, becamest poor. Thrones for a 152 00:15:07.639 --> 00:15:13.360 manger didst surrender. He gave them up, Sapphire paved courts for stable floor. 153 00:15:15.559 --> 00:15:18.679 Thou whoest rich beyond all splendor, all for love's sake, becamest poor. 154 00:15:20.320 --> 00:15:24.389 Thou who art God beyond all praising, all for love's sake, becamest 155 00:15:24.509 --> 00:15:33.509 man, stooping so low, but sinners raising heavenward by Thine Eternal Plan Thou 156 00:15:33.590 --> 00:15:39.500 who art God beyond all, praising all for love's sake. becamest man, 157 00:15:41.580 --> 00:15:46.700 Thou who art love beyond all, telling, savior and King. We Worship 158 00:15:46.820 --> 00:15:52.889 Thee Emanuel, God with US dwelling. Make us what Thou wouldst have us 159 00:15:52.929 --> 00:15:56.570 be. Thou who art love beyond all, telling, savior and King. 160 00:15:58.250 --> 00:16:04.360 We worship Thee. The hymn ends in this this prayer. Make Ust what, 161 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:11.559 make us what you would have us be. God has come and descended 162 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:18.039 on to Earth to become a man so that he might live and die for 163 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:22.590 us, so that, as Paul says in Second Corinthians eight nine, that 164 00:16:22.830 --> 00:16:27.950 we would become wealthy through his poverty. And, as we read in Philippians, 165 00:16:27.990 --> 00:16:33.019 how did God honor this? God honored it by raising him from the 166 00:16:33.059 --> 00:16:37.620 dead, seating him in the heavenly places and crowning him with that glorious crown 167 00:16:37.539 --> 00:16:42.059 that, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue 168 00:16:42.100 --> 00:16:49.769 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus gave up these things, but not 169 00:16:51.090 --> 00:16:56.210 forever. He humbled himself even to the point of death, death on a 170 00:16:56.330 --> 00:17:00.840 cross, so that he could be lifted up, not to his own glory, 171 00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:04.839 or not just to his own glory, he already had that, but 172 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:08.920 to something more glorious in a way, because he is now accompanied by this 173 00:17:10.359 --> 00:17:18.069 great work he has done, this treasured possession and people of his first Peter 174 00:17:18.230 --> 00:17:23.990 two nine says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, 175 00:17:25.230 --> 00:17:32.660 a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim 176 00:17:33.259 --> 00:17:37.180 the excellences of him who called you out of darkness and into Marvelous Light. 177 00:17:41.740 --> 00:17:45.529 This grace that we have been given to by God is meant, when we 178 00:17:47.609 --> 00:17:55.809 are given it, to flow outward, to change us from the inside. 179 00:17:57.410 --> 00:18:02.839 Titus to fourteen, who gave himself, speaking of Jesus for us, to 180 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:07.480 redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own 181 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:15.710 possession who are zealous for good works. You see, Jesus became poor to 182 00:18:15.869 --> 00:18:23.549 make you rich. He became humble to glorify you. In the end of 183 00:18:23.630 --> 00:18:32.700 the Bible we get the words Sapphire again and it comes in revelation and chapter 184 00:18:32.819 --> 00:18:41.380 twenty one, in verse, Verse Nine. We read then came one of 185 00:18:41.450 --> 00:18:45.730 the seven angels who had the seven Bulls full of the seven last plagues and 186 00:18:45.849 --> 00:18:48.009 spoke to me and said, come, I will show you the bride, 187 00:18:49.329 --> 00:18:52.130 I will show you the bride, I will show you the wife of the 188 00:18:52.210 --> 00:18:57.319 lamb. And here's what he sees, a sort of mixture of images. 189 00:18:57.359 --> 00:19:00.519 He says, I'm going to show you the bride, I'm going to show 190 00:19:00.519 --> 00:19:03.000 you the wife of the lamb, and he carried me away in the spirit 191 00:19:03.079 --> 00:19:08.799 to a great high mountain and he showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming 192 00:19:08.839 --> 00:19:15.549 down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, it's radiance 193 00:19:15.670 --> 00:19:19.710 like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It 194 00:19:19.869 --> 00:19:25.779 had great a great high wall with twelve gates and at the gates twelve angels, 195 00:19:25.859 --> 00:19:29.099 and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes, of the sons 196 00:19:29.099 --> 00:19:33.140 of Israel were inscribed. He then goes on to describe these gates and these 197 00:19:33.259 --> 00:19:38.569 walls and their measurements, and we read of them, of these beautiful precious 198 00:19:38.650 --> 00:19:45.049 stones, Emerald, Jasper, Topaz, peril and, of course, Sapphire 199 00:19:45.089 --> 00:19:49.930 as well. These pictures of the Temple of God, this Heavenly Temple of 200 00:19:51.049 --> 00:19:56.799 God, are now brought together with the picture of his bride. Of You. 201 00:19:57.759 --> 00:20:06.839 He became poor to make you rich beyond all splendor. This is who 202 00:20:06.920 --> 00:20:12.950 you are. It's who God has made you to be through the incarnation of 203 00:20:14.069 --> 00:20:18.349 his son and his work in the world. For us, praise be to 204 00:20:18.470 --> 00:20:26.539 God, worship him, lift up your hearts and trust him for all things. 205 00:20:26.579 --> 00:20:33.819 He is good and it is fitting to praise him. Let's pray