eChurch Blog

“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that, though he
was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that ye through his
poverty might be rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9

The apostle, in this chapter, was endeavoring to stir up the Corinthians to
liberality. He desired them to contribute something for those who were the
poor in the flock, that he might be able to minister to their necessities. He
tells them, that the churches of Macedonia, though very much poorer than
the church at Corinth, had done even beyond their means for the relief of
the Lord’s family, and he exhorts the Corinthians to do the same. But
suddenly recollecting that examples taken from inferiors seldom have a
powerful effect he lays aside his argument drawn from the church of
Macedonia, and he holds before them a reason for liberality which the
hardest heart can scarcely resist, if once that reason be applied by the
Spirit. “My brethren,” said he, “there is One above, by whom you hope you
have been saved, One whom you call Master and Lord, now if you will but
imitate him, you cannot be ungenerous or illiberal. For, my brethren, I tell
you a thing which is an old thing with you and an undisputed truth — ‘For
ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.’
Let this constrain you to benevolence.” O Christian, whenever thou art
inclined to an avaricious withholding from the church of God, think of thy
Savior giving up all that he had to serve thee, and canst thou then, when
thou beholdest self-denial so noble, — canst thou then be selfish, and
regard thyself; when the claims of the poor of the flock are pressed upon
thee? Remember Jesus; think thou seest him look thee in the face and say
to thee, “I gave myself for thee, and dost thou withhold thyself from me?
For if thou dost so, thou knowest not my love in all its heights and depths
and lengths and breadths.”

And now, dear friends, the argument of the apostle shall be our subject today.
It divides itself in an extremely simple manner. We have first, the
pristine condition of our Saviour — ”He was rich.” We have next, his
condescension — “He became poor.” And then we have the effect and
result of his poverty — “That we might be made rich.” We shall then close
by giving you a doctrine, a question, and an exhortation. May God bless all
these, and help us to tell them aright.

I. First, then, our text tells us THAT JESUS CHRIST WAS RICH. Think not
that our Savior began to live when he was born of the Virgin Mary;
imagine not that he dates his existence from the manger at Bethlehem;
remember he is the Eternal he is before all things, and by him all things
consist. There was never a time in which there was not God. And just so,
there was never a period in which there was not Christ Jesus our Lord. He
is self-existent, hath no beginning of days, neither end of years; he is the
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, our Savior. Now, in the past
eternity which had elapsed before his mission to this world, we are told
that Jesus Christ was rich, and to those of us who believe his glories and
trust in his divinity, it is not hard to see how he was so. Jesus was rich in
possessions. Lift up thine eye believer, and for a moment review the riches
of my Lord Jesus, before he condescended to become poor for thee.

Behold him, sitting upon his throne and declaring his own all sufficiency.
“If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the cattle on a thousand hills
are mine. Mine are the hidden treasures of gold; mine are the pearls that
the diver cannot reach, mine every precious thing that earth hath seen.”
The Lord Jesus might have said, “I can stretch my scepter from the east
even to the west, and all is mine, the whole of this world, and yon worlds
that glitter in far off space, all are mine. The illimitable expanse
ofunmeasured space, filled as it is with worlds that I have made all this is
mine. Fly upward, and thou canst not reach the summit of the hill of my
dominions; dive downwards, and thou canst not enter into the innermost
depths of my sway. From the highest throne in glory to the lowest pit of
hell, all, all is mine without exception. I can put the broad arrow of my
kingdom upon everything that I have made.”

But he had besides that which makes men richer still. We have heard of
kings in olden times who were fabulously rich, and when their richer were
summed up we read in the old romances, “And this man was possessed of
the philosopher’s stone, whereby he turned all things into gold.” Surely all
the treasures that he had before were as nothing compared with this
precious stone that brought up the rear. Now, whatever might be the
wealth of Christ in things created, he had the power of creation, and
therein, lay his boundless wealth. If he had pleased he could have spoken
worlds into existence; he had but to lift his finger, and a new universe as
boundless as the present would have leaped into existence. At the will of
his mind, millions of angels would have stood before him, legions of bright
spirits would have flashed into being. He spake, and it was done, he
commanded and it stood fast. He who said “Light, be,” and light was had
power to say to all things, “Be,” and they should be. Herein, then, lay his
riches; this creating power was one of the brightest jewels of his crown.
We call men rich, too, who have honor, and though men have never so
much wealth, yet it they be in disgrace and shame, they must not reckon
themselves amongst the rich. But our Lord Jesus had honor, honor such as
none but a divine being could receive. When he sat upon his throne, before
he relinquished the glorious mantle of his sovereignty to become a man, all
earth was filled with his glory. He could look both beneath and all around
him, and the inscription “Glory be unto God,” was written over all space,
day and night the smoking incense of praise ascended before him from
golden viols held by spirits who bowed in reverence; the harps of myriads
of cherubim and seraphim continually thrilled with his praise, and the
voices of all those mighty hosts were ever eloquent in adoration. It may be,
that on set days the princes from the far off realms, the kings, the mighty
ones of his boundless realms, came to the court of Christ, and brought each
his annual revenue. Oh, who can tell but that in the vast eternity at certain
grand eras, the great bell was rung, and all the mighty hosts that were
created gathered together in solemn review before his throne. Who can tell
the high holiday that was kept in the court of heaven when these bright
spirits bowed before his throne in joy and gladness, and, all united, raised
their voices in shouts and hallelujahs such as mortal ear hath never heard.
Oh, can ye tell the depths of the rivers of praise that flowed hard by the city
of God? Can ye imagine to yourselves the sweetness of that harmony that
perpetually poured into the ear of Jesus, Messias, King, Eternal, equal with
God his Father? No; at the thought of the glory of his kingdom, and the
riches and majesty of his power our souls are spent within us, our words
fail, we cannot utter the tithe of his glories.

Nor was he poor in any other sense. He that hath wealth on earth, and
honor too, is poor if he hath not love. I would rather be the pauper,
dependent upon charity, and have love, than I would be the prince,
despised and hated, whose death is looked for as a boon. Without love,
man is poor — give him all the diamonds and pearls, and gold that mortal
hath conceived. But Jesus was not poor in love. When he came to earth, he
did not come to get our love because his soul was solitary. Oh no, his
Father had a full delight in him from all eternity. The heart of Jehovah, the
first person of the Sacred Trinity, was divinely, immutably linked to him, he
was beloved of the Father and of the Holy Spirit; the three persons took a
sacred complacency and delight in each other. And besides that, how was
he loved by those bright spirits who had not fallen. I cannot tell what
countless orders and creatures there are created who still stand fast in
obedience to God. It is not possible for us to know whether there are, or
not, as many races of created beings as we know there are created men on
earth. We cannot tell but that in the boundless regions of space, there are
worlds inhabited by beings infinitely superior to us: but certain it is, there
were the holy angels, and they loved our Savior; they stood day and night
with wings outstretched, waiting for his commands, hearkening to the
voice of his word, and when he bade them fly, there was love in their
countenance, and joy in their hearts. They loved to serve him, and it is not
all fiction that when there was war in heaven, and when God cast out the
devil and his legions, then the elect angels showed their love to him, being
valiant in fight and strong in power. He wanted not our love to make him
happy, he was rich enough in love without us.

Now, though a spirit from the upper world should come to tell you of the
riches of Jesus he could not do it. Gabriel, in thy flights thou hast mounted
higher than my imagination dares to follow thee, but thou hast never
gained the summit of the throne of God.

“Dark with insufferable light thy skirts appear.”

Jesus, who is be that could look upon the brow of thy Majesty, who is he
that could comprehend the strength of the arm of thy might? Thou art God,
thou art infinite, and we poor finite things, are lost in thee. The insect of an
hour cannot comprehend thyself. We bow before thee, we adore thee; thou
art God over all, blessed for ever. But as for the comprehension of thy
boundless riches, as for being able to tell thy treasures, or to reckon up thy
wealth, that were impossible. All we know is, that the wealth of God, that
the treasures of the infinite, that the riches of eternity, were all thine own:
thou wast rich beyond all thought.

II. The Lord Jesus Christ then was rich. We all believe that, though none
of us can truly speak it forth. Oh, how surprised angels were, when they
were first informed that Jesus Christ, the Prince of Light and Majesty,
intended to shroud himself in clay and become a babe, and live and die! We
know not how it was first mentioned to the angels, but when the rumor
first began to get afloat among the sacred hosts, you may imagine what
strange wonderment there was. What! was it true that he whose crown was
all bedight with stars, would lay that crown aside? What! was it certain that
he about whose shoulders was cast the purple of the universe, would
become a man, dressed in a peasant’s garment! Could it be true that he
who was everlasting and immortal, would one day be nailed to a cross?
Oh! how their wonderment increased! They desired to look into it. And
when he descended from on high, they followed him, for Jesus was “seen
of angels,” and seen in a special sense; for they looked upon him in
rapturous amazement, wondering what it all could mean. “He for our sakes
became poor.” Do you see him as on that day of heaven’s eclipse he did
ungird his majesty? Oh, can ye conceive the yet increasing wonder of the
heavenly hosts when the deed was actually done, when they saw the tiara
taken off, when they saw him unbind his girdle of stars and cast away his
sandals of gold? Can ye conceive it, when he said to them “I do not disdain
the womb of the virgin, I am going down to earth to become a man?” Can
ye picture them as they declared they would follow him! Yes, they
followed him as near as he would permit them. And when they came to
earth, they began to sing, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace,
good will towards men.” Nor would they go away till they had made the
shepherds wonder, and till heaven had hung out new stars in honor of the
new-born King. And now wonder, ye angels, the Infinite has become an
infant; he, upon whose shoulders the universe doth hang, hangs at his
mother’s breast; he who created all things, and bears up the pillars of
creation hath now become so weak, that he must be carried by a woman!
And oh, wonder ye that knew him in his riches, whilst ye admire his
poverty! Where sleeps the new-horn king? Had he the best room in
Ceasar’s palace? hath a cradle of gold been prepared for him, and pillows
of down, on which to rest his head? No, where the ox fed, in the
dilapidated stable, in the manger, there the Savior lies, swathed in the
swaddling bands of the children of poverty. Nor there doth he rest long, on
a sudden his mother must carry him to Egypt: he goeth there, and
becometh a stranger in a strange land. When he comes back, see him that
made the worlds handle the hammer and the nails, assisting his father in the
trade of a carpenter! Mark him who has put the star on high, and made
them glisten in the night; mark him without one star of glory upon his brow
— a simple child as other children. Yet leave for a while the scenes of his
childhood and his earlier life, see him when he becomes a man, and now ye
may say, indeed, that for our sakes he did become poor. Never was there a
poorer man than Christ; he was the prince of poverty. He was the reverse
of CrÏsus — he might be on the top of the hill of riches, Christ stood in the
lowest vale of poverty. Look at his dress, it is woven from the top
throughout, the garment of the poor! As for his food, he oftentimes did
hunger and always was dependent upon the charity of others for the relief
of his wants! He who scattered the harvest o’er the broad acres of the
world, had not sometimes wherewithal to stay the pangs of hunger. He
who digged the springs of the ocean, sat upon a well and said to a
Samaritan woman, “Give me to drink!” He rode in no chariot, he walked
his weary way, foot sore, o’er the flints of Galilee. He had not where to lay
his head. He looked upon the fox as it hurried to its burrow, and the fowl
as it went to its resting place, and he said, “Foxes have holes, and the birds
of the air have nests, but I, the Son of man, have not where to lay my
head.” He who had once been waited on by angels, becomes the servant of
servants, takes a towel, girds himself and washes his disciples’ feet. He
who was once honored with the hallelujahs of ages, is now spit upon and
despised! He who was loved by his Father, and had abundance of the
wealth of affection, could say, “He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up
his heel against me.” Oh for words to picture the humiliation of Christ!
What leagues of distance between him that sat upon the throne, and him
that died upon the cross! Oh, who can tell the mighty chasm between yon
heights of glory, and the cross of deepest woe! Trace him, Christian, he has
left thee his manger, to show thee how God came down to man. He hath
bequeathed thee his cross, to show thee how man can ascend to God.
Follow him, follow him, all his journey through; begin with him in the
wilderness of temptation, see him fasting there and hungering, with the
wild beasts around him, trace him along his weary way, as the Man of
Sorrows, and acquainted with grief: He is the bye-word of the drunkard, he
is the song of the scorner, and he is hooted at by the malicious; see him as
they point their finger at him, and call him “drunken man and wine-bibber!”
Follow him along his via dolorosa, until at last you meet him among the
olives of Gethsemane; see him sweating great drops of blood! Follow him
to the pavement of Gabbatha, see him pouring out rivers of gore beneath
the cruel whips of Roman soldiers! With weeping eye follow him to the
cross of Calvary, see him nailed there! Mark his poverty, so poor, that they
have stripped him naked from head to foot, and exposed him to the face of
the sun! So poor, that when he asked them for water they gave him vinegar
to drink! So poor, that his unpillowed head is girt with thorns in death! Oh,
lion of Man, I know not which to admire most, thine height of glory, or thy
depths of misery! Oh, Man, slain for us, shall we not exalt thee? God, over
all, blessed for ever, shall we not give thee the loudest song? “He was rich,
yet for our sakes he became poor.” If I had a tale to tell you this day of
some king, who, out of love to some fair maiden, left his kingdom and
became a peasant like herself, ye would stand and wonder, and would
listen to the charming tale, but when I tell of God concealing his dignity to
become our Savior, our hearts are scarcely touched. Ah! my friends, we
know the tale so well, we have heard it so often; and, alas, some of us tell
it so badly that we cannot expect that you would be as interested in it as
the subject doth demand. But surely, as it is said of some great works of
architecture, that though they be seen every morning, there is always
something fresh to wonder at; so we might say of Christ, that though we
saw him every day, we should always see fresh reason to love, and wonder,
and adore. “He was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor.”

I have thought that there is one peculiarity about the poverty of Christ, that
ought not to be forgotten by us. Those who were nursed upon the lap of
want feel less the woes of their condition. But I have met with others
whose poverty I could pity. They were once rich; their very dress which
now hangs about them in tatters, tells you that they once stood foremost in
the ranks of life. You meet them amongst the poorest of the poor; you pity
them more than those who have been born and bred to poverty, because
they have known something better. Amongst all those who are poor, I have
always found the greatest amount of suffering in those who had seen better
days. I can remember, even now, the look of some who have said to me
when they have received assistance — and I have given it as delicately as I
could, lest it should look like charity — ”Ah, sir, I have known better
days.” And the tear stood in the eye, and the heart was smitten at bitter
recollections. The least slight to such a person, or even too unmasked a
kindness, becomes like a knife cutting the heart. “I have known better
days,” sounds like a knell over their joys. And verily our Lord Jesus might
have said in all his sorrows, “I have known better days than these.”
Methinks when he was tempted of the devil in the wilderness, it must have
been hard in him to have restrained himself from dashing the devil into
pieces. If I had been the Son of God, mrethinks feeling as I do now, if that
devil had tempted me I should have dashed him into the nethermost hell, in
the twinkling of an eye! And then conceive the patience our Lord must
have had, standing on the pinnacle of the temple, when the devil said, “Fall
down and worship me.” He would not touch him, the vile deceiver, but let
him do what he pleased. Oh! what might of misery and love there must
have been in the Saviour’s heart when he was spit upon by the men he had
created; when the eyes he himself had filled with vision, looked on him
with scorn, and when the tongues, to which he himself had given utterance,
hissed and blasphemed him! Oh, my friends, if the Savior had felt as we do,
and I doubt not he did feel in some measure as we do — only by great
patience he curbed himself — methinks he might have swept them all
away; and, as they said, he might have come down from the cross, and
delivered himself, and destroyed them utterly. It was mighty patience that
could bear to tread this world beneath his feet, and not to crush it, when it
so ill-treated its Redeemer. You marvel at the patience which restrained
him, you marvel also at the poverty he must have felt, the poverty of spirit,
when they rebuked him and he reviled them not again, when they scoffed
him, and yet he said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they
do.” He had seen brighter days; that made his misery more bitter, and his
poverty more poor.

III. Well, now we come to the third point — WHY DID THE SAVIOR
COME TO DIE AND BE POOR? Hear this, ye sons of Adam — the Scripture
says, “For your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might
be made rich.” For your sakes. Now, when I address you as a great
congregation, you will not feel the beauty of this expression, “For your
sake.” Husband and wife, walking in the fear of God, let me take you by
the hand and look you in the face, let me repeat those words “for your
sakes he became poor.” Young man, let a brother of thine own age, look
on thee and repeat these words, “Though he was rich, Yet for your sake he
became poor.” Grey-headed believer, let me look on you and say the same,
“For your sake he became poor.” Brethren, take the word home, and see if
it does not melt you — “Though he was rich, yet for my sake he became
poor.” Beg for the influences of the Spirit upon that truth, and it will make
your heart devout and your spirit loving — “I the chief of sinners am, yet
for my sake he died “Come let me hear you speak, let us bring the sinner
here, and let him soliloquise — ”I cursed him, I blasphemed, and yet for
my sake he was made poor; I scoffed at his minister, I broke his Sabbath,
yet for my sake was he made poor. What! Jesus, couldst thou die for one
who was not worth thy having? Couldst thou shed thy blood for one who
would have shed thy blood, if it had been in his power? What! couldst thou
die for one so worthless, so vile?” “Yes, yes,” says Jesus, “I shed that
blood for thee.” Now let the saint speak; “I,” he may say, “have professed
to love him, but how cold my love, how little have I served him! How far
have I lived from him. I have not had sweet communion with him as I
ought to have had. When have I been spending and spent in his service?
And yet, my Lord, thou dost say, “for thy sake I was made poor.” “Yes,”
saith Jesus, “see me in my miseries; see me in my agonies; see me in my
death — all these I suffered for thy sake.” Wilt thou not love him who
loved thee to thy great excess, and became poor for thy sake?

That, however, is not the point to which WE wish to bring you, just now;
the point is this, the reason why Christ died was, “that we through his
poverty might be rich.” He became poor from his riches, that our poverty
might become rich out of his poverty. Brethren we have now a joyful
theme before us — those who are parttakers of the Saviour’s blood are
rich. All those for whom the Savior died, having believed in his name and
given themselves to him, are this day rich. And yet I have some of you here
who cannot call a foot of land your own. You have nothing to call your
own to-day, you know not how you will be supported through another
week; you are poor, and yet if you be a child of God, I do know that
Christ’s end is answered in you; you are rich. No, I did not meek you when
I said you were rich; I did not taunt you — you are. You are really rich;
you are rich in possesions; you have in your possession now things more
costly than gems, more valuable than gold and silver. Silver and gold, have
I none, thou mayest say; but if thou canst say afterwards, “Christ is all,”
thou hast outspoken all that the man can say, who had piles of gold and
silver. “But,” thou sayest, “I have nothing.” Man, thou hast all things.
Knowest thou not what Paul said? He declares that “things present and
things to come, and this world, and life and death, all are yours and ye are
Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” The great machinery of providence has no
wheel which does not revolve for you. The great economy of grace with all
its fullness, is yours. Remember that adoption, justification, sanctification,
are all yours. Thou hast everything that heart can wish in spiritual things,
and thou hast everything that is necessary for this life; for you know who
hath said, “having food and raiment, let us therewith be content.” You are
rich; rich with true riches, and not with the riches of a dream. There are
times when men by night do serape gold and silver together, like shells
upon the sea shore; but when they wake in the morning they find
themselves penniless. But yours are everlasting treasures; yours are solid
riches. When the sun of eternity shall have melted the rich man’s gold
away, yours shall endure. A rich man has a cistern full of riches; but a poor
saint has got a fountain of mercy; and he is the richest who has a fountain.
Now if my neighbor be a rich man, he may have as much wealth as ever he
pleases, it is only a cistern full, it will soon be exhausted; but a Christian
has a fountain that ever flows, and let him draw, draw on for ever, the
fountain will still keep on flowing. However large may be the stagnant pool
if it be stagnant, it is but of little worth; but the flowing stream, though it
seem to be but small, needs but time, and it will have produced an immense
volume of precious water. Thou art never to have a great pool of riches,
they are always to keep on flowing to thee. “Thy bread shall be given thee,
and thy water shall be pure.” As old William Huntingdon says, “The
Christian has a hand-basket portion. Many a man, when his daughter
marries, does not give her much; but he says to her, ‘I shall send you a sack
of flour one day, and so and-so the next day, and now and then a sum of
gold; and as long as I live I will always send you something.’” Says he,
“She will get a great deal more than her sister who has had a thousand
pounds down. That is how my God deals with me; he gives to the rich man
all at once, but to me day by day.” Ah, Egypt, thou wert rich when thy
granaries were full, but those granaries might be emptied; Israel were far
richer when they could not see their granaries, but only saw the manna
drop from heaven, day by day. Now, Christian, that is thy portion — the
portion of the fountain always flowing, and not of the cistern-full and soon
to be emptied.

But remember, O saint, that thy wealth does not all lie in thy possession
just now, remember thou art rich in promises. Let a man be never so poor
as to the metal that he hash, let him have in his possession promissory
notes from rich and true men; and he says, “I have no gold in my purse, but
here is a note for such-and-such a sum — I know the signature, I can trust
the firm — I am rich, though I have no metal in hand.” And so the
Christian can say, “If I have no riches in possession, I have the promise of
them; my God hath said, ‘No good thing will I withhold from them that
walk uprightly,’ — that is a promise that makes me rich. He has told me,
‘My bread shall be given me, and my water shall be sure.’ I cannot doubt
his signature, I know his word to be authentic; and as for his faithfulness, I
would not so dishonor him as to think he would break his promise. No, the
promise is as good as the thing itself. If it be God’s promise, it is just as
sure that I shall have it, as if I had it.”

But then the Christian is very rich in reversion. When a certain old man
dies that I know of, I believe that I shall be so immensely rich that I shall
dwell in a place that is paved with gold, the walls of which are builded with
precious stones. But, my friends, you have all got an old man to die, and
when he is dead if you are followers of Jesus, you will come in for your
inheritance. You know who that man is, he is very often spoken of in
Scripture; may the old man in you die daily, and may the new man be
strengthened in you. When that old man of corruption, your old nature,
shall totter into its grave, then you will come in for your property.
Christians are like heirs, they have not much in their minority, and they are
minors now: but when they come of age they shall have the whole of their
estate. If I meet a minor, he says, “That is my property.” “You cannot sell
it sir, you cannot lay hold of it.” “No,” says he, “I know I cannot, but it is
mine when I am one-and-twenty, I shall then have complete control, but at
the same time it is as really mine now as it ever will be. I have a legal right
to it, and though my guardians take care of it for me it is mine, not theirs.”
And now, Christian, in heaven there is a crown of gold which is thine today;
it will be no more thine when thou hast it on thy head than it is now. I
remember to have heard it reported that I once spoke in metaphor and
bade Christians look at all the crowns hanging in rows in heaven — very
likely I did say it — but if not, I will say it now. Up, Christian, see the
crowns all ready, and mark thine own, stand thou and wonder at it; see
with what pearls it is bedight, and how heavy it is with gold! And that is for
thy head, thy poor aching head; thy poor tortured brain shall yet have that
crown for its arraying! And see that garment, it is stiff with gems, and
white like snow; and that is for thee! When thy week day garment shall be
done with, this shall be the raiment of thy everlasting Sabbath. When thou
hast worn out this poor body, there remaineth for thee, “A house not made
with hands eternal in the heavens.” Up to the summit, Christian, and survey
thine inheritance, and when thou hast surveyed it all, when thou hast seen
thy present possessions, thy promised possessions, thine entailed
possessions then remember that all these were bought by the poverty of thy
Savior! Look thou upon all thou hast, and say “Christ bought them for
me.” Look thou on every promise, and see the blood stains on it; yea, look,
too, on the harps and crowns of heaven and read the bloody purchase!
Remember, thou couldst never have been anything but a damned sinner
unless Christ had bought thee! Remember if he had remained in heaven,
thou wouldst for ever have remained in hell, unless he had shrouded and
eclipsed his own honor thou wouldst never have had a ray of light to shine
upon thee. Therefore bless his dear name, extol him, trace every stream to
the fountain; and bless him who is the source and the fountain of
everything thou hast. Brethren, “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye
through his poverty might be rich.”

IV. I have not done; I have three things now to say, and I shall say them
as briefly as possible.

The first is a doctrine; the doctrine is this: If Christ in his poverty made us
rich, what will he do now that he is glorified. If the Man of Sorrows saved
my soul, will the man now exalted suffer it to perish? If the dying Savior
availed for our salvation, should not the living, interceding Savior,
abundantly secure it?

“He lived, he lives and sits above,
For ever interceding there;
What shall divide us from his love,
Or what shall sink us in despair?”

If when the nail was in thine hand, O Jesus, thou didst rout all hell, canst
thou be defeated now that thou hast grasped the scepter? If, when the
thorn crown was put about thy brow thou didst prostrate the dragon, canst
thou be overcome and conquered now that the acclamations of angels are
ascending to thee? No, my brethren, we can trust the glorified Jesus, we
can repose ourselves on his bosom; if he was so strong in poverty, what
must he be in riches?

The next thing was a question, that question was a simple one. My hearer
hast thou been made rich by Christ’s poverty? Thou sayest, “I am good
enough without Christ, I want no Savior.” Oh, thou art like her of old who
said, “I am rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing, whereas,
saith the Lord, ‘Thou art naked and poor and miserable.’” O ye that live by
good works, and think that ye shall go to heaven because you are as good
as others; all the merits you can ever earn yourselves are good for nothing.
All that human nature ever made turns to a blot and a curse. If those are
your riches, you are no saints. But ran you say this morning, my hearers, “I
am by nature without anything, and God has by the power of his Spirit
taught me my nothingness.”

My brother, my sister, hast thou taken Christ to be thine all in all? Canst
thou say this day, with an unfaltering tongue, “MY Lord, my God, I have
nothing; but thou art my all?” Come, I beseech thee, do not shirk the
question. Thou art careless, heedless answer it, then, in the negative. But
when thou hast answered it, I beseech thee beware of what thou hast said.
Thou art sinful, thou feelest it. Come, I beseech thee, and lay hold on
Jesus. Remember, Christ came to make those rich that have nothing of
their own. My Savior is a physician; if you can heal yourself, he will have
nothing to do with you. Remember, my Savior came to clothe the naked.
He will clothe you if you have not a rag of your own; but unless you let
him do it from head to foot, he will have nothing to do with you. Christ
says he will never have a partner, he will do all or none. Come then, hast
thou given up all to Christ? Hast thou no reliance and trust save in the
cross of Jesus? Then thou hast answered the question well. Be happy, be
joyous, if death should surprise thee the next hour, thou art secure. Go on
thy way, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

And now I close with the third thing, which was an exhortation. Sinner,
dost thou this morning feel thy poverty? Then look to Christ’s poverty. O
ye that are to-day troubled on account of sin — and there are many such
here — God has not let you alone, he has been ploughing your heart with
the sharp ploughshare of conviction; you are this day saving, “What must I
do to be saved?” You would give all you have to have an interest in Jesus
Christ. Your soul is this day sore broken and tormented. O sinner, if thou
wouldst find salvation thou must find it in the veins of Jesus. Now, wipe
that tear from thine eye a moment and look here. Dost thou see him high
where the cross rears its terrible form? There he is. Dost see him? Mark his
head. See the thorn-crown, and the beaded drops still standing on his
temples. Mark his eyes; they are just closing in death. Canst see the lines of
agony, so desperate in woe? Dost see his hands? See the streamlets of
blood flowing down them. Hark, he is about to speak. “My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me!” Didst hear that, sinner? Pause a moment
longer, take another survey of his person; how emaciated his body, and
how sick his spirit! Look at him. But hark, he is about to speak again —
”It is finished.” What means he by that? He means, that he has finished thy
salvation. Look thou to him, and find salvation there. Remember, to be
saved, all that God wants of a penitent, is to look to Jesus. My life for this
— if you will risk your all on Christ you shall be saved. I will be Christ’s
bondsman to-day to be bound for ever if he breaks his promise. He has
said, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” It is not
your hands that will save you; it must be your eyes. Look from those
works whereby you hope to be saved. No longer strive to weave a garment
that will not hide your sin, throw away that shuttle; it is only filled with
cobwebs. What garment can you weave with that? Look thou to him, and
thou art saved. Never sinner looked and was lost. Dost mark that eye
there? One glance will save thee, one glimpse will set thee tree. Dost thou
say, “I am a guilty sinner?” Thy guilt is the reason why I bid thee look.
Dost thou say “I cannot look?” Oh, may God help thee to look now.

Remember, Christ will not reject thee; thou mayest reject him. Remember
now, there is the cup of mercy put to thy lip by the hand of Jesus. I know if
thou feelest thy need, Satan may tempt thee not to drink, but he will not
prevail; thou wilt put thy lip, feebly and faintly, perhaps, to it. But oh, do
but sip it, and the first draught shall give thee bliss, and the deeper thou
shalt drink, the more of heaven shalt thou know. Sinner, believe on Jesus
Christ; hear the whole gospel preached to thee. It is written in God’s
Word, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Hear me translate
it — He that believeth and is immersed shall be saved. Believe thou, trust
thyself on the Savior, make a profession of thy faith in baptism, and then
thou mayest rejoice in Jesus, that he hath saved thee. But remember not to
make a profession till thou hast believed; remember, baptism is nothing
until thou hast faith. Remember, it is a farce and a falsehood until thou hast
first believed; and afterwards it is nothing but the profession of thy faith.
Oh, believe that, cast thyself upon Christ, and thou art saved for ever! The
Lord add his blessing, for the Saviour’s sake. Amen.

Father Daniil Sysoyev was a fearless Christian example to us all. Despite death threats from the Islamic world, he was bold to the end for the cause of the salvation of their souls.

It is a testament to Father Daniil Sysoyev and extremely significant and appropriate that the Patriarch himself should preside over his funeral.

The following comes from the Independent:-

Faith leaders call for calm as murdered priest is buried – Religious tensions rise after death of man who converted Muslims to Christianity

By Shaun Walker in Moscow

A murdered Russian Orthodox priest was laid to rest in Moscow yesterday, amid fears of rising religious tensions between Christians and Muslims in the country. Father Daniil Sysoyev was shot dead inside his own church last week, in a killing that many suspect was by Islamic radicals.

Father Sysoyev was a controversial figure, even within the Orthodox Church. He was an active missionary, attempting to convert Muslims to Orthodoxy, and authored a number of books, including one warning Russian women against marrying Muslim men. He also posted a series of online sermons on YouTube dissecting the Islamic faith and making several incendiary claims about the religion.

Late last Thursday night, after the evening service, an intruder burst into Father Sysoyev’s small church, located in a drab Moscow suburb. The killer was wearing a surgical mask, brandishing a pistol, and demanded to know where Sysoyev was. When the priest emerged, he was shot twice, in the head and neck, and later died in hospital.

A lengthy funeral service was held for Father Sysoyev yesterday at a church in southern Moscow, presided over by Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Priests and friends packed into the small church, while hundreds of mourners gathered outside under a grey Moscow sky to watch the service on a big screen.

“To kill a man of God inside his own church is absolutely disgusting,” said Natalia, an elderly mourner who said she had not known the priest personally but respected his views. “If it was the Muslims, there will be hell to pay. Russia is a Christian country and they shouldn’t forget that.”

In contravention of an unspoken agreement among the major Russian religions not to seek converts among each other’s flocks, Father Sysoyev was an active missionary, seeking to proselytise Muslims in the Russian capital. He was known to trawl construction sites looking for migrants from the traditionally Muslim countries of Central Asia, chatting to the workers and suggesting that they convert to Christianity. The priest himself spoke of receiving multiple death threats for his views on Islam.

“You’re going to laugh, but the Muslims have again threatened to kill me – the threat was by telephone this time,” wrote the priest on his personal blog in early October. “It’s already the 14th time. Before it scared me, but I’m already used to it now.”

In addition to his missionary work, Father Sysoyev’s also held uncompromising and widely publicised views about the Islamic faith. “Islam is an attempt to create a new world order based on the authority of God,” said the priest, cloaked in black Orthodox robes, in one of his online videos. “In this sense, it’s less like the Orthodox Church or any other kind of church, and more like projects such as National Socialism or the Communist Party.”

According to some estimates, there are up to 20 million Muslims in Russia, and the country has avoided large-scale religious conflict, except in Chechnya and the rest of the North Caucasus. Even there, corruption and poverty are seen by analysts as bigger threats than radical Islam.

On a visit to Russia last month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travelled to Tatarstan, a majority Muslim region, and praised it as a “model for tolerance and coexistence between Muslims and Christians”.

But the murder of Father Sysoyev threatens to bring underlying tensions to the fore. He is now seen by Orthodox Christians as a modern-day martyr, said Andrei Zolotov, an expert on the Russian Orthodox Church. “This is a very clear case of martyrdom. He was a saint living among us.” While not everyone in the Church agreed with his views or methods, his murder will cause “a period of heightened tension,” said Mr Zolotov.

Leading Muslim figures publicly condemned the killing and cautioned people against jumping to conclusions about who was to blame, but they are privately worried about the possibility of revenge attacks.

“He was an odious figure, who openly insulted Islam, the Koran, and our prophet,” said a high-profile Muslim intellectual who did not want to be named, because of the sensitivity of the situation. Whether or not the murder was perpetrated by Islamic radicals, he said, there is now every chance of a backlash.

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we see revenge attacks,” he said. “The fact that the Patriarch himself led the funeral service is a sign from the authorities that these views are acceptable, and it’s very ominous.”

I hope that there will not be a ‘backlash and ‘revenge’ attacks, which would not be the legacy that Father Daniil Sysoyev would have wished for. Father Daniil Sysoyev sought to save Muslims with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and hopefully his work and mantle will be picked up by other brave and fearless Christians.

The Pew Forum

Hate crime incidents targeting people based on their religion were at their highest frequency last year since 2001, according to a new report.

The report, compiled by the Anti-Defamation League from FBI data, found 1,519 religious hate crimes in 2008, accounting for about 20 percent of all bias crimes. It was an increase from 2007, when 1,400 crimes of religious bias were reported.

The number of crimes targeting Jews or Jewish institutions also increased in 2008. There were 1,013 hate crimes against Jews last year, accounting for about two-thirds of all religious bias crimes. It was the largest number of crimes against Jews since 2001.

Read Entire Article

An amazing research paper on creationist beliefs, well worth a look. This is the Forward by Nick Spencer of Theos:-

The debate around Darwinism is dogged by uncertainty and confusion. How many people are evolutionists? How many creationists? How many advocates of Intelligent Design? What are the characteristics of each group? Is Intelligent Design a religious phenomenon? Are the majority of creationists Christians? Are they Muslims? Have they any religious affiliations? Do any of these groups have distinctive demographic, political or educational characteristics that might help us understand better the present intellectual landscape?

Research into these questions, at least in the UK, has been very limited. In January 2006, Ipsos/MORI asked the general public whether they believed in the “evolution theory”, the “creationism theory” or the “intelligent design theory”. Six months later OpinionPanel asked university students the same question.

Useful as such questions can be, they force respondents into distinct, pre-existing categories, assuming that everyone who ticks evolution or creationism or ID does so with the same degree of conviction and consistency.

The survey that forms the basis of this report is different. Commissioned by Theos and conducted by ComRes it asked over 2,000 UK respondents more than 25 questions: about Darwin, Darwinism, creationism, Intelligent Design, science, science education, purpose, design, God, prayer, humanity – and a range of other topics. The idea was to probe respondents from a number of different angles, exploring not only what they believed but how consistently they believed it and whether or not it correlated to other beliefs.

In particular, the survey focused on the perceived relationship between theistic belief and evolution. Were the two linked in people’s minds and, if so, in what way? Were they deemed compatible or incompatible, in tension or in harmony?

The results, which are précised in the Executive Summary and detailed in the body of the report, are interesting and, as one might expect, complex. The manner in which people engage with, adopt or reject evolution is varied, and people are not as consistent in their opinions as earlier single-question-based surveys had suggested.

Sizeable minorities were committed and coherent in their adherence to evolution, creationism or ID, but many more were uncertain and inclined to hedge their bets. The fact that people are more willing to state that a particular position is untrue rather than true, and more willing to designate a position as probable than definite, is telling.

Theos is grateful to the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion for its help in drafting and redrafting (and redrafting) the original questionnaire, and to ComRes for its participation in this process, for carrying out the research with typical professionalism and for conducting such a thorough analysis of the data.

It is worth noting that all the analysis within this report was conducted by Caroline Lawes and her colleagues at ComRes as it was deemed inappropriate for Theos, whose own advocacy of theistic evolution is well-known, to scrutinise the figures or draw conclusions from them.

We hope that the data and the analysis in this report will be of interest and use to those engaged in the debate, and that it will, in some small way, help to clear up the uncertainty and confusion that dogs discussion of evolution and creationism in the UK today.
Nick Spencer
Director of Studies, Theos

Atheists are always trying to lump intelligent design proponents into one homogeneous globule, but this research shows just how flawed that simplicity of thinking really is.

The below link will take you to the research, which is a pretty hefty PDF document. The executive summary (pages 11-19) give you a very good snapshot of the findings.

Rescuing Darwin – Faith and Darwin: Harmony, Conflict, or Confusion?
by Caroline Lawes PDF

Original Source: Crummy Church Signs

Two interesting articles today (I thought), both analysing the portrayal of Israel:-

The first from CAMERA looking at the academic portrayal of Israel:-

Gale Cengage Encyclopedia Uses Falsehoods to Equate Zionism and Racism – Extreme Anti-Zionist Commissioned to Author Article on Zionism

The second from Pajamas Media looking at the political and media portrayal of Israel:-

Israelis are being painted as peace refusers, terrorizers, killers, torturers, and recently, pilferers of internal organs.

It is fine and dandy to teach 5 year olds about sex and drugs, but government forbid, we should teach an alternative to evolutionism and encourage critical thinking by also offering intelligent design.

TimesOnline

Conservative plans to grant schools freedom from central control risk bringing the creationist doctrines of a “Religious Right” into the classroom, the Government warned last night.

Ed Balls, the Education Secretary, this week introduced new rules making the study of Darwin’s theory of evolution compulsory in primary schools. Previous guidance has banned Biblically derived ideas that the Earth and species were created suddenly within the past 10,000 years from science lessons.

Yesterday Mr Balls told The Times that Conservative policies to remove “prescriptions” under the National Curriculum and create hundreds of new independently controlled state schools posed “a real threat to the integrity of science teaching”. He added: “Creationist dogma, whether home grown or from the extreme Religious Right in America, has no place in our science classrooms.”

Michael Gove, the Shadow Education Secretary, said: “No school which receives state money could teach creationism as if it was science.” He indicated that this would be enforced through funding agreements rather than the National Curriculum.

Read Entire Article

Dorothy Vining – Mercator

In my twenties, I was responsible for indexing Darwin’s works for the Great Books Syntopicon under the direction of the well-known philosopher Mortimer Adler. At the time I swallowed the Darwinian “natural selection” scenario hook, line, and sinker. It was so beautiful, so overarching, so all-explanatory. But later on I came to realize that too much was left unexplained.

One question that has baffled me is the origin of sexual reproduction. As far as I can see, this is an unsolved puzzle amongst scientists.

Apparently Darwin did not wonder about it. Either it has not occurred to his followers that they have no explanation for the beginning of sexual differentiation into male and female, or they are deliberately ignoring it.

Evolutionists point out that sexual differentiation has both costs and benefits. They point out that reproducing sexually is costly in that time and energy have to be devoted to finding a suitable partner. There is a risk of remaining unmated. There is a risk of producing offspring less fit than the parent because of recombination. Other things being equal, asexual reproduction is quicker and easier. Asexual reproduction is more common in species little troubled by disease.

On the other hand, sexual reproduction increases diversity and the likelihood of survival in changing circumstances. It purges the species of damaging mutations so that they can evolve new defenses against infections. Some animals actually breed sexually and asexually at different times!

But as to how sexual reproduction originated there is little said. In Why Have Sex? The Population Genetics of Sex and Recombination, (2006) Otto and Gerstein mention some of the reasons for sex listed in the previous paragraph. But they offer no answer as to how it all got started.

Confronted with the fact that sexual differentiation actually does exist in most multicellular animals, we have to surmise that at some point throughout the millenia one of these creatures in the process of cell division just happened to develop a cell with only half the usual complement of genetic material. We might call this a rudimentary egg (oocyte or ovum). Whatever could be the advantage of producing an egg? An egg would be of absolutely no use unless there was a sperm to fertilize it. If this animal found no mate, it would, of course, have been the first and last of its kind!

Well, perhaps another creature of the same species accidentally produced a sperm, complete with a tail. Why do you suppose it would grow a tail when it didn’t have a clue that it would have to go swimming after an egg? And of course it would not be genetically preprogrammed to recognize an egg if it should chance to run into one!

If we accept evolutionary theory we are required to imagine that each animal that today reproduces sexually, in the distant past was going about its business of reproducing asexually, dividing and budding away, when all of a sudden it accidentally produced an egg and at the same time, in the same locale, another animal of the same species just happened to make a sperm cell. Also, simultaneously and independently they each accidentally acquired the apparatus to get the egg and sperm together so they could produce offspring with a full set of genes.

Are you buying this?

If ever there was a case of “irreducible complexity”, we have one in the transition from asexual to sexual reproduction. Irreducible complexity means simply that the process cannot be reduced to a series of simple steps one after another. If a number of things do not happen and come together all at once, nothing works. Irreducible complexity has been defined in various ways but I prefer Darwin’s own language: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case” (Origin of Species, Chapter VI).

But as far as I can see, sexual differentiation is such a case.

Asexual reproduction results in progeny identical to the parent, unless there is a genetic mutation which will produce some change in the DNA. For an organism to initiate sexual reproduction additional genetic information is required, not only added to one organism but added simultaneously to two organisms of the same type, at the same time, and differing so that the changes will be complementary. There is no point in having a genetically female animal if there is no matching male anywhere around.

Accidental genetic mutations are almost always deleterious and have never been shown to involve an increase in genetic information. Consider that the informational content of the DNA in a single human cell equals that of 30 volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittanica. Where did all the new additional information required for sexual differentiation come from?

I have never seen any even remotely plausible explanation of how sexual differentiation might have first evolved in the Darwinian scheme of things. To my mind, the very fact of sexual differentiation necessitates, yes, demands a plan. And a plan demands a planner. “Male and female He created them,” not “Male and female they decided to become.”

Dorothy Vining once worked for the philosopher Mortimer Adler on the Syntopicon, an index to the ideas in the 54 volume set of The Great Books of the Western World. As her field was the biological sciences, she was assigned to index the biological works of Aristotle, Hippocrates, Harvey, Galen, and Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species and The Descent of Man. An enthusiast then, she became increasingly critical of Darwin’s theories. She blogs at Musings at 85.

By John Jalsevac

STRASBOURG, France, November 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new draft resolution from the Council of Europe aimed at legally limiting the freedom of medical doctors and health care providers who object to abortion has life and family defenders in Europe deeply concerned.

The new draft Resolution is the latest initiative undertaken by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to promote abortion and restrict freedom of religion and conscience. The resolution, sponsored by Sweden’s Carina Hägg, is entitled “Women’s access to lawful medical care: the problem of unregulated use of conscientious objection.”

The resolution has two main objectives: the first – to push for further access to abortion as a “Human Right” – the second: to limit the possibility for individual health care providers and institutions “to refuse to provide certain health services based on religious, moral or philosophical objections.”  The “health services” targeted are mostly abortion, emergency contraception, assisted suicide and artificial procreation.

The document states that, “While recognising the right of an individual to conscientiously object to performing a certain medical procedure, the Parliamentary Assembly is deeply concerned about the increasing and largely unregulated occurrence of this practice, especially in the field of reproductive health care.”

The solution proposed is that member states begin to “provide oversight and monitoring of the practice of conscientious objection so as to ensure women are able to access the medical services they need and are legally entitled to receive.”

However, the document specifically states that the right to “institutional objection” must be removed, ensuring that hospitals as a whole cannot invoke conscientious objection. Member states must “rule out the right of institutional conscientious objection, preventing public hospitals or clinics as a whole to invoke conscientious objection,” says the document.

Such a drastic measure would put an abrupt end to institutions such as Catholic hospitals that refuse to provide abortions and other procedures that violate the sanctity of life.

The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ), an international non-profit law firm dedicated to protecting human rights and religious freedom in Europe and worldwide, will be intervening in the matter to defend conscience rights. At the request of Members of Parliamentary Assemble, the ECLJ is currently preparing a memorandum in support to “conscientious objection” that will be submitted to the Parliament in the weeks ahead.

See the draft resolution attacking freedom of Conscience here.