Seeking once again the help of
God, I'd like you to turn to the chapter that we read together,
Luke 12, and the text you'll find in verse 19. And I will
say unto my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many
years. Take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry. This morning we looked at the
Lord Jesus Christ as the true vine and the Lord's people being
the branches that get their sustenance and strength and nutrition. from
the Lord Jesus Christ. As the branches of the vine draw
off that main root, that main branch, they're unable to grow
and they're unable to bear fruit. They are dependent upon that
main vine. and the Lord's people are dependent
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We read that without him we can
do nothing and yet by Christ Jesus we are enabled to do all
things and so the life of the believer is completely dependent
upon the Lord Jesus Christ for that ability to continue on in
the Christian pathway, in the Christian walk separated from
him, we have no life, we have no ability. We read that those
who bear no fruit are snapped off from the vine and cast into
the heap at the side ready for the fire. And so the Christian
lives in dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ. They need
him day by day to enable them to persevere in the Christian
walk, to persevere in the battles. that they have to face as they
come into daily contact with the oppositions of the Christian
faith as they come under daily attack from Satan, from sin,
the flesh and the devil. And as we saw before, the Christian
is equipped with the armour of God to enable them to fight these
battles of their own strength, of their own ability. they can't. And the parable that the Lord
Jesus sets before us this afternoon is the parable of a rich man.
A man who thought that he had enough. A thought that he had
enough material wealth to sustain him until he was old. He rested in the fact that his
barns, his crops brought forth plenty. He rested in the fact
that he was able to pull down his barns and build greater ones. And he had complete confidence
that he was going to live for a long, long time and he was
going to live off all this wealth that he had accumulated from
a good harvest. And he says that that his soul,
he said in his soul, sold thou hast much goods, laid up for
many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry. So in complete contrast to what
we were speaking about this morning, that the believer is dependent
upon Christ, satisfied by Christ, sustained by Christ, and the
worldly mindset is that independent of Christ they are able to find
that satisfaction, that help, that ease by the material things
that they possess and they're able to hoard these things up
and rest upon these things in the hope that these things are
going to sustain them and to make them happy and to give them
that ability to take their ease. It is something of a mindset
isn't it in our day that people are trying to achieve as much
wealth as they can to then have their ease and so they want to
accumulate as much wealth as possible by a set age maybe 40,
45, maybe 50 and then they want to stop And they want to have
a long retirement so that they can enjoy themselves. Or they
want to cut down their working week to four days so that they
can have a long weekend and enjoy the pursuits that they enjoy. They like to go mountain biking. They like to go walking. They like to go car racing. They
want to do their hobbies. And they want as much time as
possible for them to be able to do their hobbies. They want
ease, they don't want to work, they want to do as little work
for as much money as possible so that they can have as much
free time as possible and this was the mindset of this man. He was blessed, the Lord blessed
his crops he brought his ground brought forth abundantly plentifully
But instead of looking at it in a godly way, instead of thinking,
well, yes, I'll keep this in case there's a problem next year
or this year and I'll go and help maybe some of my neighbours
who have been struggling for a little bit. He said, no, I'm
going to pull down my barns and I'm going to increase the amount
of storage that I have so I can relax. so I can have a good time
so I can ease and party and be happy and be merry but God said
to him thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee
then whose shall these things be that thou hast provided so
he had forgotten that the length of his life was not in his own
hands. His idea was that he was going
to live for a long time and that's all really if we are honest with
ourselves we all like to think that we're going to live for
a long time but we don't know how long we
are going to live. As we've seen before the scripture tells us that if we are able
to do in such a thing we're to say God willing. If God wills,
God allows us to live and to do this and that then that's
fine. But to make plans and to make
arrangements based upon our own ideas that we're going to live
for a long time is wrong. And this man made his ideas based
upon the things that he had. He trusted in the abundance of
his wealth and said that he's going to take his ease and he's
going to eat and he's going to drink and he's going to be merry. So it was like he rested his
head on a temporary pillow. The things of this world the
scripture tells us they are passing away. They're not guaranteed
to last. They are temporary. We may hoard
up and we may be taken away or we may hoard up and our things
may be taken away. There was a book that I read.
It's one of my favourite books. It's called Johnny Cornflakes.
And it's about a tramp in Chicago years ago. And in that story
there is two old ladies who come to the church. One of them is
quite poor and the other one is very wealthy. And in Chicago
there was a big fire which caused a lot of people to be homeless. And this rich lady, she wouldn't
give any of her things. She was asked if she could distribute
some of her wealth to help those who were suffering, but she refused. And one day while she was going
down into her basement, into her pantry, she slipped and she
broke her neck and died. And in the end, her son comes
from England and her son gives this massive mansion to the church
in which the church then use it as a place for like a halfway
house for people to do good. the lady was so consumed with
herself that she wouldn't give to those who were in need. She
had her store, her abundant supply for herself but then one day
she fell down the stairs and broke her neck. And just like
this man here, he had his abundant supply for himself. He had enough
so that he could have his ease. He could relax. He could drink.
He could be merry. But he had forgotten God. He had forgotten that his life
was in the hands of God. He'd forgotten that God said,
thou fool, This night thy soul will be required of thee. And
so he rested on a temporary pillow, a pillow that was passing away,
was fleeting, was unable to offer him any real comfort. His life was built on sinking
sand, a building which is constantly shifting and cracking that will
one day fall down. His hope was not in Christ. His hope was in the abundance
of the things that he had. And those things could not sustain
him eternally, only temporarily. And so he was resting on a passing pillow, on a sinking
sand foundation. His ease was just a temporary
The scripture tells us vain is the help of man. Vain is the life that is resting
and trusting on the abundance of things that we have. And his happiness was to do with what he had. He looked at what he had and
it made him happy. He looked at what he had and
that made him come to the conclusion I've got a long life. He looked
at what he had and that made him think I'm going to take it
easy now. I'm going to eat and drink and I'm going to be happy
because of everything that he saw that he had. What he didn't
have was God. What he didn't have was Christ.
And so his happiness was based upon his material possessions
and his doing well in life. His ground brought forth plentifully
and that made him happy. But if his ground had not brought
forth plentifully, would he still be happy? And how is it with
us today? Is our joy based upon our material
circumstances? Or if all of those material things
were to be taken away would we still have any joy? Would our
life crumble at that fact that we have nothing? Or if we removed
everything from our lives would we still have the one thing that
is needful? The Lord Jesus Christ. If we
stripped everything back, got rid of everything that we had
would we still be able to say we've got Christ? Or would we end up like this
man with nothing? Everything was removed from him
or he was removed from the things that he had and he had nothing. But in contrast Jesus speaks
of those who have Christ. He puts the the worldling on
one side and then he puts the believer on the other. He says
this is the mindset of the worldling to eat, drink and be merry, to
take his ease. This is how the worldling thinks. This is where his happiness is.
But my people, they are different. They are not worried about the
abundance of the things. Because he says, take no thought
for your life. Therefore, I say to you, take
no thought for your life. For your life is more Sorry. For I say unto you, take no thought
for your life, what you shall eat, neither what for the body,
what you shall put on. For the life is more than meat
and the body more than raiment. And he tells us now to cast our
eyes to the creation. He says, look at the ravens, how they exist. The Lord feeds
them. The Lord provides for them. They
don't have barns. They don't have storehouses.
They live day by day and the Lord helps them and feeds them. Look at the lilies of the field.
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Why then are you worrying about your clothes, what you are going
to put on? Why are you worrying about your food? Why are you
worrying about your clothes? Why are you of a doubtful mind? Why is your happiness fixed upon
the things that you have when it should be fixed upon the one
thing that is needful of the Lord Jesus Christ? He says, but
rather seek ye the kingdom of God and all these other things
shall be added unto you. Seek after God's things. Deal
with God's things, righteousness, godliness, holiness. rather than
the pursuit of the material things of this world which can never
satisfy. And so he contrasts these two. This mindset, this different
mindset that there is to be. The mindset of the world and
the mindset of the believer. The believer's focus is Christ
and his kingdom. The worldling's mindset is the
world and this kingdom that is passing away. The believer's
mindset is to Christ. The worldling's mindset is to
the world. In Corinthians. Sorry, it's Chronicles. In Chronicles,
2 Chronicles 32, Hezekiah and the
people of Jerusalem are being attacked by the king of Syria.
The king of Syria is telling the people, don't worry, don't
listen to Hezekiah. Don't worry about what he is
going to say, about trusting in God. In verse 7 it says, Be
strong and courageous. Be not afraid nor dismayed for
the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with
him. For there are more with us than with him. With him is
the arm of flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us
and to fight our battles and the people rested themselves
upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. And so it can be that
when we do look at the success and the achievements of the people
of the world that we can be discouraged. We have tried to seek that one
thing that is needful. We have tried to seek first the
kingdom of God in our lives and it has proved naturally speaking
to cause us some discouragement and distress. But If you look at in the time of
Hezekiah when the army was approaching they were trusting in God. Hezekiah
tells the people vain is the help of man. There may be many
of them. They may be doing better than
you and seemingly achieving more than you. But the Lord will help
us. But God is with us and to help
us. And there was the difference.
The difference between this rich man that had an abundance of
wealth and the believer that was walking the narrow way that
leads to life. That the Lord promised to provide
him with his daily needs. May not be that he has an abundant
supply, it may be that he does. But the Lord has promised him
that sustaining grace, that strength sufficient for each day. And
he doesn't want to take his ease to drink and to be merry. He
wants to serve the true and the living God. He understands the
frailty and the insufficiency of the things of this life after
they are passing away. And he wants to rest in the Lord. But the scripture tells us that
there is a danger of the abundance of things. In our land, England, we are I think the 10th wealthiest
country in the world. I think there's like 190 something
countries in the world. We are the 10th. So we live in the top richest
countries. And the scripture warns us of
the danger of the abundance of things. The children of Israel
as we saw this morning, as they gained wealth, they began then
to lose sight of God. They began to go their own way
and to do their own things and to go after the gods of the world. So the scripture tells us that
there is a great danger when nations become wealthy that there
will become an abandonment. People will begin to abandon
God and the ways of truth. The scripture says when wealth
increases set not your heart on it. This is what this man
had done. He had set his heart upon his
wealth. There was his happiness. There's
nothing wrong with wealth. There's nothing wrong with achieving
and success. But it's when that success takes
your heart takes your strength, takes your focus, takes your
mind. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse
26, it tells us there, for you see your calling brethren, how
that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. God has chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise and God has chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. And to there it says there's
not many. There are some wealthy, some noble, some mighty people
that are called. But the abundance of wealth has
a danger to pierce us through with many sorrows. It has a danger
to take us away from God and become self-reliant and to be
self-able. Don't have to pray. One blessing with the work of
the mission was that we could almost be directed by the Lord
because we had no money. And so when we were praying and
the Lord provided we knew that that was the way in which we
would go. But if we had an abundant supply
we may not have prayed as earnest We may not have even sought that
direction. We would have seen well we've got loads of money
here we just build this or we just buy that. We don't have
to consider those things. And so the abundance the more
we have the less likely we are to seek guidance or direction
from God as we can just go and do what we want to do. Like this man. I don't have to
work anymore. I've got so much. I'm just going
to relax and enjoy my life. I'm just going to take it easy
and have parties and be happy. And so the things that we have,
have the ability to take our heart and to take our eyes off
God and his word. And we only have to look through
the examples of scripture in Gebezekiah. as he walked in,
oh sorry, Nebuchadnezzar as he walked in Babylon. And he saw
the greatness of the city. Isn't this great Babylon that
I have built? It took his heart. It made him
proud. And the Lord struck him down.
Hezekiah went and showed all the riches of Jerusalem to the
governors of Babylon. Showed them his gold, his ointments,
his spices. The riches had taken his heart.
King David was at ease in his palace, resting when his army
was fighting. He took his ease and his ease
led him into sin. Solomon, his wealth, enabled
him access to multitudes of women and they took his heart. And so the scripture warns us,
gives us this warning, these warnings of living in a prosperous
nation, living in a prosperous condition that we have to be
careful. We have to be careful that the things that we have
don't take our hearts away from God, that we don't begin to worship
the material rather than the creator. But another thing with this man he predicted what was going to happen. He believed that this was what was
going to take place. I've got this. So now I can take it easy. Now
I can eat. Now I can drink. And now I can
be merry. And it's a very dangerous thing
to think that when we get to this point everything is going
to be okay. that when I get out of this trial
or when I've made this bit of money or when I've saved up this
much, when I've got to this point in my career that now everything
is going to be okay. All my problems are going to
be over. When I've reached my retirement
and now I can stop. I've slaved away for so many
years and now I can just stop. I'm going to take my ease. I'm
going to eat and drink and be merry. I'm going to reap the
rewards of my labours over the years. Once I've got this, once
I've got there, everything is going to be OK. And it's a very
dangerous position to be in. It's a very dangerous thought
to have. Because we are trying to predict what God is going
to do. We're trying to predict that
this is how God is going to deal with us. especially for a believer. You see if we predict that in
so many years time when we've reached this amount of money
that our lives are going to be easy we can be sure that God
will put something into our life to make it not easy. The Christian
is not meant to be at ease in this world. It is a worldly mindset
to say let us take our ease, let us eat, drink and be merry. There's a difference between
rest and ease. Jesus said to his disciples come
aside and rest a little while. Resting is temporary. It's a temporary pause from the
labors of the day, from the labors of the year. Over this period
of time we've had a rest. Some may have had a rest. And we understand it's just for
a little time and then we're going to go back to work. We
know we're not going to put our feet up for the whole year. We're
not going to take it easy for the whole year. Ease is a lifestyle. It's the lifestyle that the world
wants. You see these people on Instagram
and Twitter, they're posting all the time that their lives
are just easy. Cruising around the world on
boats and aeroplanes and staying in nice hotels and they're just
taking their ease. And that is the mindset of the
world and the Christian should not have that mindset. Our mindset
is not luxury. Our mindset is not ease. We are
servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are slaves of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We have been brought by his precious
blood to serve him and to bear fruit for him. And so the lifestyle of the Christian
Yes, there are times of rest. Yes, there are times of prosperity. Yes, there are times of struggle. But the mindset is not a lifestyle
of ease. In Amos, the children of Israel
after they had divided Judah and the other tribes. You had
Jerusalem as the capital and then you have Samaria and there
was prosperity. They were not listening to the
prophets. They were trusting in themselves. They were self-confident,
arrogant. They had turned away from God.
And the Prophet comes and he says to them, woe unto them or
alas, alas. Woe unto them that are at ease
in Zion, that trust in the mountain of Samaria. which are named the
chief of the nations to whom the house of Israel has come.
And so you have Zion which is Jerusalem and the people in Jerusalem
are trusting and resting in the security of their city. And then you have the people
of Samaria which is the northern kingdom. They are trusting in
their city and their mountain that nothing can harm us. And they are relaxing. beds of
ivory. They eat from the flock. They
enjoy themselves with the abundance of wine and ointments. But God says, I abhor your sacrifices. I hate your palaces. Therefore I will deliver the
city up and all that is therein and it shall come to pass that
if there remain ten men in one house they shall all die. So they had forgotten God. They had rested in the abundance. God had allowed them to increase.
They had multiplied in riches and they had become self-confident
and self-secure. they lived the party lifestyle
but God says I'm going to come and I'm going to destroy and
we see with the vine as we looked at this morning that God said
I will knock it down I will uproot it, I will pull down the walls
thereof and the security thereof. I will not allow it to rain upon
that vine anymore. And then he sent the true and
the living vine, the true vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
it's dangerous to be a Christian in a prosperous
country. and to be affected by the mindset
of the people who live round about us. And it's very easy
to be caught up in this mindset of materialism because our flesh
is so easily drawn to the things of this world. It's so easy that
everybody else is pursuing after this career. Everybody else wants
to achieve something that I also have to do the same. But that might not be what God
wants you to do. That might not be the pathway that God wants
you to take. And we are as believers to take the pathway that the
Lord has his people to take. Some is a life of career, yes. But some is a life of service.
Some is a life in the ministry or in the missionary field. But it's the mindset to how we
come that we are different. I'm going to have a career. I'm
going to get to this. I'm going to have this type of
house. I'm going to have this type of car. I'm going to go
on these types of holidays. I'm going to do this and I'm
going to do that. I'm going to take it easy. Thou fool, this night thy soul
will be required of thee. And if we are Christians and we have that mindset, then
God will bring a storm. You may make it, but you won't
have ease. God will always bring something
to unsettle us. Our ease is heaven. Our rest is heaven. The mindset of the world is eat,
drink and to be merry but the mindset of the believer is to
draw sustenance from Christ himself and to live a life that seeks
first the kingdom of God and then all these other things that
we need will be added unto to us. And I will say to my soul,
soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Woe unto them that are at ease
in Zion, that trust in material things instead of trusting in
the true and the living God. May the Lord enable us to trust
in the true and the living God. Amen. Closing hymn for this service
is hymn number 124 from Hymns of Worship. It is not enough to say we're
sorry and repent Yet still go on from day to day just as we
always went Hymn number 124 from Hymns of Worship to the tune
number 9 ? On from day to day ? ? Just as
we always pray ? ? Who then turns his to me ? ? The sins we loved
before ? ? And show that we are not his crew ? you Dear Lord and Almighty God, we
pray that Thou give us the right mindset, the right perspective,
enable us to walk as Thy children, the children of the Heavenly
King. We ask that Thou dismiss us with Thy blessing. Do forgive
us, Lord, of our many sins and do make up where we fail. And now may the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit, do rest and abide with
us each now and for evermore. Amen.