Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me again to the book of Proverbs, chapter 14. Proverbs, chapter 14. I'd like to read one verse of
Scripture, verse 24. Proverbs 14, 24. It says, "...the crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness
of fools is folly." Let's pray once again. Our Father, we bow and ask You, would You bless
this Word again for Christ's sake? Amen. I've entitled this message, who is rich. And our passage begins today
speaking of riches. Here's what it says. The crown
of the wise is their riches. Now, you know, the Scriptures
have a lot to say about riches. And the believer wants to know. They want to hear. They want
to be instructed from God's Word concerning riches. Now, if we were talking about
merely material wealth, if that's all we were talking about, I
can tell you based on the Word of God, we need to be real careful
about riches. Very, very cautious because though
money I know is helpful, no doubt about that, but the love of it,
the hunger after it, the Scripture sets forth as the root of all
evil. You're going to find that money,
just the love of it, hoarding of it, stinginess of
it, root of all evil, Scripture says.
Let me read you something in Luke 12. Luke 12, verse 16 to
20. The Lord speaking, he spake a
parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man
brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself,
saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits. And he said, This will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will
I bestow all my fruits and goods And I'll say to my soul, Soul,
thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease,
eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose
shall these things be which thou hast provided? I can tell you just a little
bit from watching, seeing, trying to behold, just a little bit
that I've been able to see. Oftentimes what men consider
one of the greatest blessings, a lot of money, is one of the
worst things that can happen to them. worse things, you really
find out. If you want to know, really,
how the nature of man is, let it come face to face with
inheritance or money, somebody passing away or something. And
I'm telling you, I have seen families. I've seen brothers
and sisters. lie and steal and connive and
twist and get somebody to change. You've got to be kidding me.
Now that's our nature. That's the way we are. People
will just... The love of money, the root,
the exposure of all evil, He said, well, nobody'd ever
turn on me because of money. Don't kid yourself. You kidding
me? Listen to what Solomon... Here's
the wisest man born in Adam. Proverbs 30, 7-9. Now listen
to these words. Here's Solomon speaking. He says,
Two things have I required of thee. Deny me them not before
I die. Here's what Solomon asked. Remove far from me vanity and
lies and give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food
convenient for me or my allowance is what it says. Lest I be fooled
and deny thee. Deny your providence. Deny your
goodness and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal
and take the name of my God in vain." Boy, that was a wise request,
wasn't it? Lord, don't make me so poor that
I deny You, steal, take Your name in vain. Don't give me riches.
or I'm lifted up, puffed up. I tell you, there I know has been
some blessed of God to be truly wealthy materially. I know there
has. I know David was a rich man. Solomon was a rich man. Job was
a rich man. But those found faithful. God is blessed with great riches. They went through many trials.
God Almighty proved them. I'm telling you, riches has proven
to be, more times than not, a great, great trial. 1 Corinthians 1.26, while I'm turning
to you, I remember Brother Henry saying one time, he said, God
has been pleased to not make often, not make very, very wealthy
people Very, very beautiful women. Very, very handsome men. He said,
as a general rule, you're not going to find people that are
just absolutely catapulted in the world's eyes to be way up
here. I'm talking about extremely brilliant
people. Extremely beautiful women, he
said, or extremely handsome men. As a general rule, no. 1 Corinthians. 1 John 1 verse 26, For you see
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
that are mighty, and the base things of the world, and things
which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not
to bring to naught things that are. Why? that no flesh should
glory in His presence. Almighty God has been pleased
as a general rule that things that this world considers wonderful,
great, magnificent, that's not the things that God's chosen.
But when the Word speaks of riches, riches, that's what Proverbs
1424 is talking about, the crown of the wise is their riches. When it speaks of riches, it's
going to always speak of that which endures, truly endures. James 2.5, Hearken, my beloved
brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in
faith? Heirs of the kingdom which He
hath promised to them that love Him, Now, can you imagine what
a possession of a richness to be able to believe God. Have
you ever had anybody ask you when they talk about somebody
that left this world? They were extremely wealthy.
You say, I wonder how much he left. I wonder how much he left. I wonder how much he left the
kids. All of it. Every bit of it. That's how much
he left. Come on. Rich. Rich in faith. Now today,
the Spirit of God has been pleased to reveal something of the essence
of riches. And I pray that the Lord teach
me this right here. I need to learn this. I want
to learn this. I want to know this. The crown
of the wise is their riches. The wreath. The glory of those
made wise. That is their wealth. But here's
what I want to know. What is that? The crown of the
wise. Lord, don't leave me to myself
to try to say, well, I think that that's... I don't want to
know what I think. I want to know what You say. And Lord,
whatever You say, that will suffice. Thus saith the Lord. What is
it? Here's the wonderful thing about it. It's in verse 18. Let's
back up. The latter part of verse 18.
Well, let's read verse 18. The simple inherit folly, but
the prudent are crowned with knowledge. That's it. The prudent, the wise in heart
are crowned with knowledge. They didn't crown themselves.
That's the first thing I saw. They didn't put the crown on
themselves. They were crowned by the grace of God, instructed
by God's Spirit, and taught of Christ. John 17 verse 3 says,
This is life eternal. This is life eternal. This is
life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. in knowing Him, not as I talked
about this morning about demons that know that He is God. I'm talking about those that
know Him by grace, that know Him in heart, that bow to Him,
that have no confidence whatsoever in their flesh. They know in
knowing Him, they know themselves, something at least of themselves.
They know of myself. I can do nothing. How do they
know that? The Lord told them. Without Me,
you can do nothing. Well, I can believe. No, you
can't. That's included in nothing. If we believe, it's by the grace
of God. He gave us a heart to believe. This is life eternal.
That they may know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent. When we know Him, we know something. of His purpose, of His glory. Lord, show me Your glory. Show
me what You think. I'm going to have mercy. I'm
going to have compassion. Lord, may I be found in that
number. 2 Timothy 4, 8, henceforth there
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me
only, but unto all them love His appearance, a crown of righteousness. According to Proverbs 14, 18, that crown is the knowledge of
Christ. That is the crown, a knowledge
of Him. Oh, Paul said that I may know
Him. Oh, that I may be found in Him, a crown of perfect knowledge
in that day. When I will know Him as He is
and see Him as He is and be like Him, that's a crown. That's a crown. Brother Henry
said this of this verse, this crown signifies the happiness,
the glory and the future state of all believers. He said it's
called a crown of righteousness Because it refers to the perfect
holiness that comes to us through the imputed righteousness of
Christ. I know a lot of folks talk about
all the crowns they're going to have when they get to heaven.
Is this crown a literal crown? Oh, better than that. Better
than that. The crown, the knowledge, it's in me. The Apostle said, you have the
mind of Christ. We know Him in part right now.
But in that day, can you imagine that we'll know Him as we are
known? We'll know Him. Oh, right now. That's what Paul said. That I may know Him and the power
of His resurrection. Oh, to be able. to know what
God accomplished for me in His death, in that burial, in that
resurrection, in that ascension, and the fellowship of His sufferings
being made conformable unto His death. Knowing Him, that is our
crown. And you read that again and go
back and look at it. Proverbs 14.24, the crown of
the wise is their riches. Rich in faith. To those that
know him not, to the foolish, the foolishness of fools is folly. Those whose riches are built,
bound, founded upon this world. Obviously, we're talking about
two groups of people right here. They're opposites. I know that.
The wise are those that, by the grace of God, know Him. And they're
going to know Him, as I've said before. And I stand by this. I know people will say, do you
honestly believe that the message that you preach is the only message
that God blesses to the salvation of sinners? Yes. Yes, I do. How in the world can you be so
arrogant? Because God said so. Romans 1, 16 and 17. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of God, of Christ. It is the
power of God unto salvation. It is the power of God. Therein
is the righteousness of God. I heard Brother Gary say this.
He said, what's wrong? with God getting all the glory
and us getting none of it. What's wrong with that? What's
wrong with that? Unto Him be honor and glory and
praise and dominion forever and ever. The foolishness of the
fools is folly. I tell you, it said the foolishness
of fools is folly. The foolishness of fools is folly. It doesn't matter how you turn
it. It doesn't matter, as I've said
before, what kind of shingle you hang out on the sign. We're
this, we're this one, we're called this, we're called this. This
is what we, this is how, if it's not according to these scriptures
right here, it's foolishness. And no matter how you turn it,
it's still foolishness. Salvation is by the grace of
God. May the Lord bless these words
to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.