“HE, BEING RICH, BECAME POOR”
Luke 12:16-21; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 2:5-11;
The first scripture that we read is about a rich man who wanted to become richer, and the last scripture is about a poor woman who chose to become even poorer. The second and third scriptures that we read are about the Lord Jesus. He was infinitely richer than the rich man we first read about, and he became poorer even than the poor woman. I want to present Him to you as the Saviour. He is available to you as a Saviour, and you need a Saviour because you are a sinner. We are all sinners; we have all done something wrong which has offended God, and God requires something to be done about it. He knows that we cannot do anything ourselves, and He has provided the Saviour, His well-beloved Son, the Lord Jesus.
I began with this parable in Luke 12 because it is a sober reminder of what we all are as sinners away from God. “The land of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly. And he reasoned within himself saying, What shall I do? for I have not a place where I shall lay up my fruits. And he said, This will I do”. It is interesting how often he says, “I will”. This man was doing what he wanted to do, he was doing his own will. Beloved, if you do your own will, it is going to be opposed to God’s will. This man thought he was going to become richer and build bigger granaries in which to keep all his grain. I will “build greater”, “I will lay up”, “I will say to my soul”. It is interesting that he speaks about his soul. Do you know that you have a soul, friend? Do you know that you have something within you that will never die? Your body can die but you have a soul inside you; it is part of you that will never die, and God desires that your soul should be saved tonight. If it is not already saved, He wants your soul to be saved, because He wants you to be with Him, with Jesus for ever, for His pleasure.
He wants you near Him, He wants your company. That is why God made man in the very beginning. He made Him a living soul, so that man might please God, and that God might have his company. We like to be with people whose company we enjoy. The children know that; they want to be with their friends. God wants to be with man; but because we are sinners and do what is wrong, we cannot be in God’s presence without having our sins dealt with first. We are like this person and just want to do our own will. You hear people say, I can do what I want. That is not really true; you ought to do what God wills. What does God desire us to do? He desires us to hear His Son, He desires us to believe on His Son, He desires us to follow His Son, and He desires us to be like His Son. That is what God’s will is, but our own will only ever leads to what is offensive to God. God said to this man “Fool”. You might say, that is strong language, God calling someone a fool, but it also tells us in the scripture that “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God”, Ps.14:1. Beloved, there is a God, I can assure you of that. The same God who created the universe, who made you, is a real and living God. God created all the stars, every single one of them, and not only that, He named each one of them. He knows them all by name, and He knows your name too, and He knows all about you. He knows more than your parents know about you, He knows everything, all those secret thoughts, those things that you may have done that you know would not have been pleasing to your parents, or to God. God knows all about your sins; He sees them, He sees everything that we do, but He does not want you to be afraid because of that. He wants to tell you that He has the answer to all your problems. Maybe your sins trouble you. Well, God has the answer for that, and the answer is in the Lord Jesus.
He is the Person I read of in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 because it speaks about Him as “being rich”. It says “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes he, being rich, became poor, in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched”. Think of the Lord Jesus, and who He is; He is none less than God. He came here as a Man, but He never ceased being God in His Person and He never will cease to be God. He is God in Himself, as we read in Philippians, “on an equality with God”. That means that the Lord Jesus, although a Man, is God. This is important, because there are some so-called religions in the world which say that He was only a good Man. Beloved, He was a perfect Man, but He is and always will be God in His Person. Let us protect that. It says “he, being rich”. It does not mean that Jesus had many possessions, it does not mean that He had a lot of treasure, or even grain like that first man. He had riches that were far above anything that man could ever have thought of. He had riches that were related to where He was in glory. That first rich man just wanted more and more, and that is like us sometimes as away from God. But it says of the Lord Jesus that, even though He had these exceeding riches, He “became poor”. Why did He do that? Did something go wrong? No beloved, He chose to become poor. It is interesting to read in the Scriptures about the things which it says that the Lord Jesus became. It says elsewhere that He “became dead”, Rev.1:18. These are things which the Lord Jesus was not before, but which He became. So it says that “he, being rich, became poor”. Beloved, the Lord Jesus chose to become poor for me, and if you believe on Him, I can say that He chose to become poor for you. That is, He left His place in heavenly glory to come down, to come near to the sinner.
You remember how He came as a Babe. Persons will soon be speaking about it even in the world, but let us remember what it really means. God came down to draw near to sinners, not in a way that would overwhelm them or frighten them, but as a lowly Babe, a perfect lowly, spotless, sinless Person, the Lord Jesus. He was and is different from every one of us. We are all sinners, but He is sinless; He never sinned once. He was absolutely sinless in everything that He did and said, and in what He was. He is unique and beyond compare. Yet He “became poor”. Why did He become poor? Was it for something relating to Himself? No. It says, “in order that ye”, that is, in order that persons like the Corinthians and like us as sinners, in order that we “might be enriched”. If persons are sinners away from God, how poor they are. What a desperate situation they are in! It speaks somewhere else about persons who owed something, that “they had nothing to pay”, Luke 7:42. You might owe someone some money but you do not have any money to pay them back; you are a debtor. We do not have anything of our own to pay to God, because we are sinners, and we cannot have anything acceptable to offer Him. But the Lord Jesus is perfectly acceptable to God. And He was perfectly pleasing to God as He became poor, as He came into manhood and not only that, as He went to the cross.
He “became poor”; that is why I read in Philippians. It says that Christ Jesus, “subsisting in the form of God, did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God”. That is because He was God. Beloved, think of this, of One who in His Person was and is God Himself. It says He “emptied himself” and note ‘n’ is interesting; it speaks about making ‘himself of no reputation’. That is the complete opposite of our own sinful flesh. Men like to make a reputation for themselves, make a name for themselves, but He made Himself of no reputation, He “became poor”. The One to whom Godhead glory belongs made Himself poor, He “emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form”; you might say, not even taking the place of a man of repute in the world, but “a bondman’s form”. He was One who was going to serve others; not to do His own will, like that first man, but to do God’s will. Think of Jesus saying, “not my will, but thine be done” (Luke 22:42) as He was anticipating the cross.
Do you know what happened there? The Lord Jesus was following the Father’s will, He was obedient. It says, “and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself”, so not only did He empty Himself, but while He was here as a Man, He “humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross”. What does the cross of Calvary mean to you? What do you see there? Do you see your Saviour dying for you there, shedding His precious blood for you? He can be your Saviour tonight – you must not put it off. You might feel like a poor sinner with nothing to offer God. Well, the Lord Jesus has already become poor that you might be rich, rich towards God. God does not want you to stay as a sinner, away from Him, awaiting only judgment, because that is what awaits persons who refuse Jesus. It is a foolish position to refuse Jesus. God would have you to come to Jesus tonight, accept Him as your Saviour, and open your heart to Him. Let Him in, tell Him all about your sins, and have them washed away in His precious blood. He can do that, and He can do it immediately; and once you have your sins washed away, your salvation will be certain and fixed for eternity. Why? Because God is entirely satisfied with what Jesus accomplished at the cross and with the One who has done it.
What Jesus did on the cross will never need to be repeated. That work is enough for every sinner in the world who repents and comes in faith and accepts Jesus for themselves. Is that you? Are you one of them? You can be. It does not matter how young or old you are. The Lord Jesus is just waiting for you tonight to come and tell Him about your sins, and ask Him to be your Saviour, and He will surely save you. It says, “and that the death of the cross”. Men hated the Lord Jesus even though He was sinless. He did not do anything wrong, yet they hated Him. Think of how He felt that, think of how the sinless Lord Jesus felt the hatred of men against Himself. He did not do anything wrong; some even had to admit that themselves. Just before He was crucified, even Pilate had to say, “I find no fault whatever in him”, John 18:38. But beloved, He still went on to the cross, to endure shame, suffering and spitting beforehand, and then the cruelty of man in putting Him on the cross of Calvary.
While Jesus was on that cross, there were three hours when the sun went completely dark. It was the middle of the day, it would appear, but even so, the sun went dark for three hours; complete darkness. What happened then could not be taken account of by man, it could not be comprehended by the men who would have been looking on. There was a matter being borne there between God and the Lord Jesus, who became the sin-bearer. The whole matter of sin was being condemned in the flesh, it was being condemned in the Person of the Lord Jesus. God’s righteous wrath against sin, that principle of sin that causes us to commit sins – God was dealing with that. He was dealing with it in that precious One, my Saviour, the One of whom the scripture says that He was made sin for us (2 Cor.5:21). I can hardly understand the fulness of that scripture, but it is in Scripture, and we can lay hold of it, that Jesus was made sin for us. God poured out His judgment on Him, and thus condemned sin completely. The Lord Jesus could say “It is finished” (John 19:30), and then He died; the Lord Jesus laid down His life.
Then His precious blood was shed. A soldier in cruelty, even after He had died, pierced His side and blood flowed out. Beloved, have you laid hold of that blood in faith, have you believed that that blood was shed for you? That is what God requires. God required a remission of sins, and blood was required for that, life had to be given up, and the Lord Jesus gave up His life for my sins. Can you say that He went there for you? Can you really say that in faith? Do you believe that that is what Jesus did? If you do, you are saved and you are saved for ever. If you can say in faith that His blood was shed for you, that your sins are washed away, then you do not need to feel guilty any more, because as far as God is concerned, your sins are gone. They are washed away, removed from His sight for ever, never to be brought up again. Even though you might remember them and be troubled by them, God has removed them for ever from His sight. How does that make you feel in God’s presence? You do not need to feel guilty, you can feel at peace with God. That is what God is offering in the glad tidings tonight. The One who became poor has in mind that you might be rich. He would have you to be one who bows the knee to Him, as we have here; “God highly exalted him”.
The Lord Jesus, although He died, lives now. He was dead and He lives. He was buried and He remained in the grave for three days and three nights and then He rose again. Think of the glory of the resurrection and the hope that it gives to the believer. The Saviour is living tonight, dear friend. He is a real, living Saviour and He is available to you. He is not far away, He is not far from any one of us. We might say, without being fanciful, that He is passing through Aberdeen tonight, and He is waiting for you to receive Him in faith. You do not have to do anything complicated, you do not have to pass a test, you do not have to spend a long period of time proving yourself. You just have to ask Him to be your Saviour now, wherever you are. No matter how old or young you are, ask Jesus to be your Saviour tonight. Believe that He died for you, that His blood was shed for you, and that God is satisfied with that offering of Jesus. Because He is satisfied; it says, “God highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow”.
Have you bowed your knee to Jesus? Perhaps you have done that actually. Perhaps you have knelt down and prayed to Him, asked Him to be your Saviour, but then have you in your life bowed the knee to Jesus? Have you said that His will must come first? Not like that first man who said, “I will”, the believer would become someone who would seek to do the Lord’s will, and what would please Him. That is the test for us; “and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father’s glory”. We can have part in giving glory to God, we can become worshippers. God delights to hear us singing the praises of our Lord Jesus. We can have our part in that week by week. Lord’s day by Lord’s day, we can be among those who do what the Lord Jesus would have us to do. One of these things would be to remember Him in the breaking of bread. That is what He desires, that would be His will. Are you going to do that, or are you going to do your own will? The Lord Jesus would challenge us, and test us, that there might be something for God the Father’s glory in our lives here.
The Lord Jesus is so considerate. He knows how weak we are, and He knows how sin can still be in us even once we are believers. Although our salvation is secure for eternity, and cannot be changed, we are still weak and we give in to temptation. The Lord Jesus has considered for that too. He has provided the blessed Holy Spirit, He has provided in that Person a power that is greater than any power in the world which is against the believer. We spoke in the reading of what is contrary; there is what is contrary to the believer in this world. There is much against the believer in the way of opposition and in the way of temptation. These are two of the ways in which Satan works. He works head on, and he also works in temptation, to distract and divert us. The Holy Spirit helps us to resist both of these things. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”, Jas.4:7. and “This is the way, walk ye in it”, Isa.30:21. Think of the consistent power and ability of the Holy Spirit to help the believer in doing God’s will. Are you going to be one of them? Are you going to be someone who accepts Jesus as Saviour, and receives the Holy Spirit, so that you can be here pleasing to God, doing His will, like the Lord Jesus? He did it perfectly of course, but in our measure, we can do God’s will and do what is pleasing to Him.
I read in Luke about this woman. I think she was a woman that the Lord Jesus appreciated. The first scripture we read was about a certain rich man; here is a “certain poor widow”. She had two mites, two small coins, that is all she had. I do not know how much money you have, but this woman had two coins. That is all she had, maybe two pence, but she came, and what did she do? She said, as it were, ‘I am going to put it all into the treasury’. You might say she was going to put her lot in with the people of God, and God’s interests. She did not keep one coin back for herself. She did not try to reserve something, maybe some of her own time, or some of her own will, for herself. She was casting it all in. Beloved, have you cast in your lot with believers whose desire it is to do God’s will? That is what He is looking for. He is not wanting you to keep anything back for yourself. It says, “this poor widow has cast in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have cast into the gifts of God; but she out of her need has cast in all the living which she had”.
Is your life here for God’s pleasure, doing His will, what is pleasing to Him, or are you still reserving something for yourself? I trust you are not like the rich man who was looking for growth or expansion here in what is material. Be like this woman who found her faith in God to support and sustain her in her life; she “cast in all the living which she had”. The Lord Jesus looks for unreserved commitment to Himself. Commitment is something that is lacking in the world. In many fields of the world, people are afraid to commit to things. But the Lord Jesus will richly reward you if you commit yourself to Him and His testimony, and to His people at the present time. He might not reward you with material riches, but He will reward you with spiritual blessings. He will make you rich, He will put a song in your heart, He will cause you to be a worshipper, He will give you brethren, He will give you the joy of sonship. He will give you the joy of what it is to be in the Father’s presence, He will give you the joy of the Holy Spirit. How rich you will be spiritually towards God, if you accept the Lord Jesus and rely on the Holy Spirit’s power.
I present these things to you, and especially, first and foremost, I present the Lord Jesus to you for your acceptance as Saviour, the One who “being rich, became poor” for you, became poor for me in coming into manhood, and not only that but He suffered and died and His precious blood was shed. He is available as your Saviour now. He will not always be – there is a warning in the glad tidings that time is running out. You sometimes see an egg timer with sand in the top and it falls through to the bottom until it is finished; there is a fixed amount of time that it takes. God knows how much time is left. I do not know how many grains are still left, but they are running out. There will be a last moment of time in which the Saviour is available, beloved. Make sure that you are saved now; “now is the well-accepted time; behold, now the day of salvation”, 2 Cor.6:2.
May you come to Jesus as Saviour tonight, for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Aberdeen, Scotland
4 December 2016
J.S. Speirs