I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Luke, chapter
12. Luke, chapter 12. Based upon the story that I just
told, and for those that will be listening, on the internet
concerning my visit with my dear friend. When he made this statement to
me on his deathbed, Marvin, don't count on tomorrow. The Lord has moved upon my heart
to pin this message and I've entitled it, Don't Count on Tomorrow.
And I've taken from my text, Luke chapter 12, and I'd like
to consider the verses in the text itself, verses 13 to 21,
but actually the message, the verse, one verse that was born
to my heart is verse 20. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose
shall those things be which thou hast provided? Our Lord was teaching. And in the book of Luke chapter
12, I want to read the first 12 verses. to give us an understanding
of what is actually going on. It says, in the meantime, when
there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people,
insomuch that they trod one upon another, he began to say unto
his disciples, first of all, beware ye of the leaven of the
Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered
that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have
spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which
ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon
the housetops. And I say unto you, my friends,
be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have
no more that they can do, but I will forewarn you whom ye shall
fear. Fear him which after he hath
killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear
him. Are not five sparrows sold for
two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?
But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not,
therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Also I say
unto you, whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the
Son of Man also confess before the angels of God. But he that
denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever shall speak a word
against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. but unto him
that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven.
And when they bring you unto the synagogues and unto the magistrates
and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing you shall answer
or what you shall say for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in
the very hour what ye ought to say. Our Lord, I'm gonna make
a comment here when he said in verses eight and nine, he was
talking about, I say, whosoever shall confess me before him The
Son of Man shall confess before the angels, but who denieth me
before men shall deny." He's speaking totally there of salvation
by the grace of God as opposed to the works of man. Whosoever denies me that he is
the Savior, God's appointed Savior of sinners. Men put confidence
in themselves. So to deny the Lord is to deny
that salvation is by the grace of God and it's to attribute
man's works, man's will to the salvation. He said, whoever does
that, you deny me the glory that is due unto me, I'm gonna deny
you before God. So we're warned. But now the
Lord has been teaching. And I wanna pick up now in the
next verse, in verse 13, and set forth in the context of our
Lord's teaching, I wanna teach just exactly what he taught.
Now think about what he had just said. concerning the glory of
God, salvation by the grace of God. And then one says in verse
13, and one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my
brother that he divide the inheritance with me. Now, having just spoken
of these glorious truths, salvation by the grace of God, The Lord
Jesus Christ receiving all the honor, the glory, the praise,
salvation to helpless, needy sinners. This man says, Lord,
would you tell my brother to divide his inheritance with me? You know the truth of the inheritance,
the double portion given to the firstborn. And this brother,
obviously, realizing that his older brother, humanly speaking,
had gotten twice as much as he got. And what did he do? He coveted what his brother was
lawfully given by the law of God. And the Lord, in his answer,
taught us a good lesson that we need to hear. Obviously, he's
teaching. He said in verse 14, he said
in him, man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? The Lord said that? The Lord
said who made me to be a magistrate, to settle these civil matters. Now, here the Lord taught us
something about the priorities in this life. He told this young
man, he said, I didn't come into this world to handle matters
that I've delegated others to do. The Lord, all authority is
of the Lord. He raises up the governor, the
magistrates, and he told that young man He said we'd be better
off to have less involvement with secular things of this world.
These civil matters obviously have their place. There's no
doubt about that. It's not that things don't need to be settled.
I'm not saying that at all. But what the Lord was saying,
He said for His calling, He was sent into this world as God's
prophet. And the work that He was given,
that was His meat to do the will of the Father. And He said this
is the priority. God had made provision for the
taking care of these things within the body. I'll hold you in place
there, turn to Acts chapter 6. I mean, things need to be taken
care of. I want to be very, very careful that we understand. I
understand that. Things have got to be taken care
of. In this congregation, there's things that's got to be taken
care of. Acts chapter 6, verses 1 to 4, in those days when the
number of the disciples were multiplied, there arose a murmuring
of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected
in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude
of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we
should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore,
brethren, look out among you seven men of honest report, full
of the Holy Ghost's wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually
to prayer and to the ministry of the word." Now what had happened
right there? God raised up a new office within the church, and
it was called a deacon. a deacon. It was created, a deacon,
the office of a deacon created for one specific and noble reasons,
that the pastors might be relieved of the burdens and concerns that
were found within the assembly. And that's what they do. They
don't run the church, there's not a board, you know, that makes
the decision and dictates to the pastor, this is what we're
going to do and this and the other. They're way over their bounds.
That's not the office of a deacon. A deacon is raised up by God
to be a help to the congregation, to the pastor, to take care of
stuff. So here back in Luke 12, this
man hearing the Lord preach, and this man asked him, he said,
would you settle a matter between me and my brother? This man was
wrong. His brother had received that
which was right, and he asked the Lord. And the Lord told him,
he said, I didn't come for this. And then the Lord then revealed
why he said what he said to that young man in verse 14. He said
in verse 15, he said unto them, now he just told this man, he
said, man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? This is
not what I was sent to do. to sit up on a chair of judgment
and make decisions, civil decisions, you know, in politics. And he
said unto them, those that were standing around, you take heed,
based on what he just told this man, you take heed and beware
of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not
in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. He told
them, he said, I want you to stare at. I want you to discern
clearly and you give heed to, you take heed. Beware of covetousness. Now this covetousness, what is
that? He said, I want you to watch
and be on guard against that which is lawfully forbidden and
belongs to another. This was the young man's problem. And the Lord took this opportunity
to warn. Here's wisdom himself warning
us. He said, I want you to take heed. Hold your place and turn to 1
Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6, verse six to 10. 1 Timothy 6, verse six
to 10. The Lord says, but godliness
with contentment is great gain. Now, again, what is godliness? But godliness. Brother Henry
Mahan made this statement, I thought it was so good, I looked it up.
He summed up what the real meaning is, godliness. It's a true heart
of reverence and respect for God that manifests itself outwardly
in our walk and attitude toward God and men. That's godliness.
It's from a heart made new in regeneration. When a man or woman,
because of their respect for God and for God's Word, they
walk in a way that is becoming. They adorn the doctrine that
they believe. That's godliness. They're not
saying that they walk without sin. But they strive to adorn
the doctrine that they believe. They desire to. Godliness. So
1 Timothy 6, 6. But godliness with contentment
is great gain. For we brought nothing into this
world and it's certain we'd carry nothing out. and having food
and raiment, let us therewith be content. And they that would
be rich fall into temptation and a snare into the many foolish,
hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the
root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have
erred from the faith, pierced themselves through with many
sorrow." I was talking to someone the other day and was talking
about this. Scripture never says that money
is the root of all evil. That means Solomon, David, there
were some rich people in the scriptures. The love of it, the
desire after it, at the expense of God's honor, God's glory,
God's praise, God's word. He said, you beware. Beware. Obviously in Luke chapter
12, whenever the Lord is speaking, He said unto them, you take heed
and you beware of covetousness. Desiring, hungering, longing
after that which is forbidden. You know, the Scripture says
you seek first the Kingdom of God. You seek first. Number one. Yeah, but you don't understand. You seek first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness. And all these things will be
added unto you. Covetousness is to put anything ahead of our
first responsibility, seeking after God. covetousness which the Lord is
dealing with right here. And I'm coming up. He is leading
up to that 20th verse that I read. Fool, today, tonight, your soul
is going to be required of you. He's leading up to something
and here's how he's teaching it. He's saying, he's telling
him, he said, I want you to beware of covetousness for a man's life
consists not in the abundance of the thing which he possesses.
Covetousness was at the heart of a third of the angels. Lucifer
and a third of the angels being cast out of heaven. Covetousness. They desired God's honor, God's
glory. Covetousness in the garden was
the cause of man's spiritual death and the reason right now,
covetousness, The Lord told Adam, he said, you can eat up everything
in the garden except one. One tree, don't you eat of that.
He did. He coveted it. He had to have
it. I want that. Covetousness, desiring
that which is not yours, which doesn't belong to you, or which
is desired for the sake and the putting off of God's
honor, God's word, covetousness, that's what it is. The law says
in Exodus 20, 17, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house,
thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor
his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that
is thy neighbor's covetousness. That law right there exposed
the depth of the law. It shows that it forbids not
only actions, outward actions against God and men, but thoughts.
Covetousness is an inward thing. Nobody else sees it but you and,
well, God sees it. I don't even know if we see it.
But again, to covet, is to delight and long for that which God has
forbidden, and to be dissatisfied with God's wise decree and good
pleasure. In Judges, we read Judges chapter
six, first 19 verses a while ago. I'm gonna tell you, I'm
just gonna sum up. I'm not gonna read it for the sake of time,
but Judges six and seven, and you go back and read it out,
those first 19 verses. The Lord had told Joshua, you tell the
priest, you tell the people, this is what we're going to do.
I've given Jericho into your hands. And I want you to do it
this way. Have the priest go around the
city and blow trumpets. Don't you say anything until
I tell you to shout. Don't you do that. That last
verse we read, chapter 19, The Lord had summed up, He said,
now Jericho is an accursed place. And when you go in there, I'm
going to give it into your hands, but the thing is, I don't want
you going and taking any of the spoils out of Jericho. It's an accursed place, and I'm
forbidding you to take anything of the spoils of Jericho. That
last verse that we read, He said, silver is mine, gold is mine,
You know, all the goods, they're mine. And he said that gold and
that silver is to be put in the treasury of the temple. Okay, that's what God said concerning
him. But something happened. There was a man named Achan. Achan, you remember the story?
A man named Achan did that which was forbidden. The Lord told
them, don't touch, don't take, don't do anything with the spoils. Leave it alone. Leave it alone.
And the Lord was going to send them up against the people of
Israel against a little city called Ai. Ai. And they looked at it, Israel
kind of summed it up, They said, I don't send everybody. I just
send a couple of thousand men, maybe three, something like that.
Don't worry about it. And the men of Ai whipped him. And Israel
had turned their back and ran. And Joshua was astonished. This is in 6 and 7. Joshua 6
and 7. He couldn't believe it. He said, what's happened? And
the Lord revealed to him. He said, there's sin in the camp. And someone has done something,
and they've called all of Israel to sin by their disobedience. And so they kind of started looking
out, and the Lord exposed a man named Achan. And Joshua asked
him, he said, Achan, what did you do? What did you do? I'm
going to read it to you, Joshua 7. Verses 20 and 21, and Achan
answered Joshua and said, indeed I have sinned against the Lord
God of Israel. And thus and thus have I done
when I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment and 200 shekels
of silver and a wedge of gold of 50 shekels weight, then I
coveted them. And behold their head in the
earth in the midst of my tent and the silvers under it. And
what happened? God told Joshua, take him and
all of his family. All of his family. And they killed
him. They killed him. That man coveted
that which God had forbidden. And it cost him his life and
his family's life. And the plague was stayed from
Israel. Verse 12, verse 15, the Lord
says, You take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's
life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. The Lord has promised, I'm not
going to leave you. I'm not going to forsake you.
So keeping to the context of our Lord's Word, the true end
of man's being, the purpose for which God has placed man and
given him breath is not to amass wealth through covetousness but
to glorify God on the earth and the carnal heart rejects that
thought. What our old man opposes is the
good pleasure of God to do what he wants to do and knows is best
for us. It's just idolatry. It manifests
itself in all kinds of deceitful ways but it's always revealed
by covetousness. I want something that's not mine
to have. I want something that the Lord
has forbidden and that burning desire for the things of this
world and the pleasures it promises while being insensitive to God
and to His worship. So the Lord gave a perfect example
of that covetousness in this parable. He says in verse 16,
He spake a parable unto them saying the ground of a certain
man, rich man, the ground of a certain rich man brought forth
plentifully. Now here we got a landowner. He's got a piece of property
and it did good. It just produced abundantly. It was not a case where the abundance
was acquired unlawfully. He didn't get it like Aiken got
it. He didn't take it, you know, It was given providentially from
the Lord, from the bounty of heaven. And here we're taught,
if increase comes, it's the Lord that has done it for His glory
and the good of His people. Genesis 26.12 says, Then Isaac
sowed in the land and received in the same year a hundredfold,
and the Lord blessed him. So when that abundance came,
it appeared to the man that the great increase had just one solution. He said in verse 17, he thought
within himself saying, what shall I do? I have no room where to
bestow my fruits. Now he looked at that increase
and he really considered it to have come with a real problem. I've got a problem. What am I going to do? I don't
have any room to store my fruits. Look at the wording. My fruits. The very thought of
man by nature is to give glory unto himself and not unto the
Lord of glory. The one who who owns and gives
the increase. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. So what right does any man, any
woman to say, this is my fruit, this is my fruit. I pull myself
up by my own bootstraps. Psalm 50 verse 10 says, for every
beast of the forest is mine. Somebody say, no, no, no, I bought
that. He said, the cattle on a thousand
hills, they're mine. Haggai 2.8, the silver is mine,
the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts. Psalm 62.10, if riches
increase, set not your heart upon them. What do you mean set
not your heart upon them? Don't look at the increase, consider
the increaser. Don't, be careful, be careful,
be careful. The Lord's given a warning to
us. So he concluded that the only
way to protect what he had seen as far as an increase was just
to make room, you know, cause I ain't got no place to put all
this stuff. And then the scripture says in verse 18, and he said,
this will I do. I will pull down my barns. I'll
build greater. and there will I bestow all my
fruits and my goods." Again, everything owing to his own industry. My fruits, my barns, my goods. And as he grew richer, he was
a rich man to start with, and as he grew richer, covetousness
became more obvious. And he I thought about that parable
of the Lord when He was talking about a sower that went to sow.
And the seed fell on, you know, by the wayside and stony ground
and thorny ground and some good ground. And He gave, He said
what happened? One on the wayside, the birds
came and got it and it just never had any fruit whatsoever. Stony
ground, it sprang up quickly, but when the sun came out because
of the the oppression of the gospel, they wilted because there
was no root in them. But that thorny ground has always
been one that has truly, I've heard different men say this,
it is for me, that thorny ground here is always one that went
for a while. It went for a while. It seemed to have some fruit
there, but when the thorns came up, the cares of this world It
choked out the Word. Now I can tell you this, I know
for a fact. No believer in the Lord Jesus Christ will ever perish.
God will keep him. They'll be kept by the power
of God unto salvation. I know that. He said, I give
unto them eternal life. They will never perish. Never. Never. But God may allow a man,
a woman, to have something and He's going to expose them. He's
going to show what they are. And this is what This is what
happens before you realize it. You know, things mess and stuff. You've heard me say that. They
began to choke out the word. What does it mean, choke it out?
Well, it just pushes it to the side. It's just not as important. It's just not that important.
I'm not going to give it up. Mr. Spurgeon made a statement.
And I'm going to tell you what, it's a paraphrase. But this is
the way I remember it to be. Mr. Spurgeon said this, and he's
talking about the exposing of men and women who are, by covetousness,
that the Lord allows them to finally be exposed. And this,
I'm telling you, it makes me think, Lord, please, please don't
let me Don't leave me to myself. We say that so many times. Oh
please. Mr. Spurgeon said this. He said
for every one man I've seen leave the hearing of the gospel because
of poverty. He said I've seen a thousand
leave because of riches. Because of the covetousness,
the love, and the going after of money. So deceiving. Is that heart taken up with the
love of this world's goods? Covetousness. A man, except he
be kept by the power of God. He's going to convince himself
that he's settled. He's secure. I'm okay. He said
in verse 19 of Luke 12, and this rich man still talking, I will
say to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease. drink and be
merry. My friend, in the same conversation,
when he made the statement to me, Marvin, don't count on tomorrow. Just before he made that statement,
this is what he said. He said, you know, a few weeks
ago, he said, I thought to myself, I've got a lot of time. I've
got a lot of time. I'm feeling good. I feel good. I've got a lot of time. That
thought is the thoughts of the old man that deceives us. Now, let me ask you this. What did the Lord say was the
average, the average, some more, some less, the average of a man's
life? Three score and ten. That's 70
years. 70 years. I'm 70. I'm 70. But you know what my old man
says, Sean? I mean, that doesn't actually apply to me. I mean,
I know it applies to most people, but that's not to me. Now, am
I right? I mean, you think about it. A little bit more, a little
less. But man by nature finds himself
prone to forget. what God has said. I realized,
I told Glenda one day, baby, this is the best we've got. This
is it. This is it, where we are right
here, this is it. Man by nature forgets God's Word. God said
through Solomon in Proverbs 27 and 1, boast not thyself of tomorrow. Don't boast yourself of tomorrow.
teach us to number our days. Not years. Our days. Our days. This man in Luke 12 thought himself,
I'm set. I'm set. I got this. I'm going
to have bigger barns. I'm going to have all this excess.
He thought his barns would be full. He's going to kick back.
He's going to relax. He's going to hold on to what
produce he's seen. And trying to hold on. I know
this. I know this according to the
word that the Lord would teach me. Trying to hold on to what
this world has is like trying to hang on to water in your hand
or sand. Trying to, you know, hold on
to it and not drop any of it. It's just the faster you try
to grasp hold of it, the quicker it goes. James chapter 4. I'm going to try to wrap this
up. James chapter 4. The scripture
says, verse 13 to 17, Go to now ye that say, today or tomorrow
we'll go into such a city and continue there a year, buy and
sell, get game. Whereas you know not what shall
be on the morrow. For what is your life? It's even
a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanisheth away. That you ought to say, if the
Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But now you
rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth
to do good." What do you mean? It means to not say, I'm going
to do this or I'm going to do that, but rather I ought to say,
if the Lord wills, he that knoweth to do good. That's what the scripture
says we ought to do. To him that knoweth to do good
and doeth it not. It doesn't say that. To him it's
sin. How little this man in Luke 12
knew. His life was coming to an end.
Yeah, but I feel good. Yeah, so did my friend. Yeah,
my friend. My son, Gabe, saw him three weeks
before this. He said, Dad, he was normal.
He was normal. He was just doing fine. He was
doing fine. And that's when he confessed to me. He said, Marvin,
a few weeks ago, here is my dear friend, my brother
in Christ. And he, within less than 48 hours
after I saw him, he was gone. The Lord took him. The scripture
said, in verse 20, God said to him, thou fool, this night thy
soul shall be required of thee, then whose shall these things
be which thou hast provided? The literal rendering of that
Greek there, when it says that When it says, this night thy
soul shall be required, you might see it in your margin. It's actually
what it's saying, this night they require thy soul of thee. Now who the they are, we're not
told whether it's disease or whether it's an automobile accident
or whatever, whatever it is. Whatever is the means that the
Lord takes a man or woman out of this world, the Lord does
that. It's appointed unto man who wants
to die. They're still the messengers of the Lord. So whatever they
require, but for a believer, a believer, the angels of the
Lord, you know, are said to take them and receive them. In Luke
16, 22, it came to pass that beggar, you know, the rich man,
Lazarus, the beggar, it came to pass that the beggar died
and was carried by the angels into Abraham's and the rich man
also died and was buried. The Lord asked him, he said,
all this boasting that you're doing, all this hoopla in the
building, he said, what? He said, you're going to die. You're going to die tonight.
And now, who's going to get all this stuff when you're gone? David said in Psalm 39.6, surely
every man walketh in a vain show. Surely they're disquieted in
vain. He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather
them. You know, we've got a little something here for a few minutes.
And we start looking at that like, you know, this is where
I am. Man, I've arrived. The scripture
says in verse 21, in closing, so is he that layeth up treasure
for himself. and is not rich toward God. Now, that truth, laying up for
himself, that's true, I know, in material things, I understand
that, but especially in spiritual things. He that layeth up for
himself is not rich toward God. One that thinks he's laid up
for himself, treasure in heaven, salvation by his own works, by
his own decision, he's not rich. toward God, but one that has
cast himself upon the mercy of God in Christ. He's truly spiritually
rich. Truly he's blessed. He's the
one that has sought life and mercy in the hand of the Lord
Jesus Christ and has found no confidence in himself. He's a
man that's been made wise unto salvation. So the scripture declares
concerning this life, this life, Hebrews chapter 3, I'm going
to read this. I really will quit. Hebrews chapter 3. Listen to
this exhortation. I think, Marvin, you better listen. You better listen to what's being
said. The Lord warned. He warned. He warned. And I say, as I heard my friend
say, I'm convinced that God Almighty moved on that man's heart to
say those words. I'm convinced of it. God, the
Lord said he worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will. And when he made that statement, it just, it hit me. Don't count
on tomorrow. Don't you count on tomorrow.
Hebrews chapter three, verse seven and eight, wherefore, as
the Holy Ghost saith today, and you get a chance, you can look
back at Hebrews three if you want to, you can look at it as
chapter three, Verse 7, today is capitalized. Today, if you
will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation
in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers
tempted me and proved me and saw my works forty years. He said in verse 13, but exhort
one another daily while it's called today. If any of you be
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, today, I looked it up,
looked it up. I know what today means. I want to know what it means
in that verse of scripture, right here, here it is. At the present,
don't put off till tomorrow. Don't put off till tomorrow.
All who are found to be rich toward God acknowledge their
spiritual riches have come from the only one who has the power
and the right to give them today. Today. They depend upon Him today. They call upon Him today. Today. You say, well, I believe
that salvation is of the Lord. You believe right then. And I'm
telling you, the Spirit of God says, don't you put this off.
Don't you put off, don't you count on tomorrow. Don't you
count on it. I watched a dear brother that
attended this church. I watched him die right now. Right now. Job says, Naked came I out of
my mother's womb, and naked shall I return to the Lord gave and
the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
I'm going to just tell you, this is the burden of my heart. I'm
telling you. I'm telling you. Today. Today. If Almighty God is pleased
to call out one of His own, He's going to call them out today.
He's not going to call them out yesterday. He's not going to
call you out tomorrow either. Why? You've heard, tomorrow never
comes. Tomorrow is still tomorrow. When I was in high school, tomorrow
was still tomorrow. Today, today, don't count on
tomorrow. I pray God bless this to our
heart for his glory and our good.