Luke chapter 12. As our Lord was teaching these
folks what we looked at this morning, he spake a parable unto
them and we didn't have time to see all of that, so I wanted
to look at that tonight. Luke 12, 16. If you remember
the context from this morning, this man comes to him of all
the things you might ask the Savior for. He asks about temporal,
vain things. And the Lord told everyone there
to beware of that. We're all prone to that. We're
all susceptible to that. And then in verse 16 it says,
And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain
rich man brought forth plentifully. Now the way that the scriptures
word things is always significant. There's not one wasted word in
the perfect word of God. So this verse gives us a reminder
that everything that we have comes from God. It doesn't say
a certain rich man produced plentifully. It says his ground did. The ground the ground produced
and that tells us something now because the earth is the Lord's
Psalm 24 1 and the fullness thereof everything it produces everything
that comes from this earth is the Lord's the world and all
they that dwell in it so this earth everything that comes of
this earth and everybody that lives in this earth they belong
to him So that ground is the Lord's. And the Lord gave this
rich man some of it, loaned it to him for a little while, and
caused it to prosper. That's what happened. Now somebody
did work the ground. Somebody worked hard if it brought
forth plentifully. It doesn't just happen without
some work. And whether this man or likely
his servants, if he was a wealthy man. But that doesn't change
who it belongs to and who provides the increase. That's just a test. Now you mark it down, that's
a test from God. He gives us work to do and people
tend to think that because they broke a little sweat or went
to a little trouble that they provided for themselves. No,
that's not what happened. When you struggle and work, and
we should, we should work hard and diligently and faithfully
at what the Lord has given us to do. But when that happens,
what it ought to do is remind us of the curse. Because of our
sin, when God said in Genesis 317 unto Adam, because thou hast
hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and has eaten of the tree
which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it, cursed
is the ground. for thy sake, and sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life." And we do, don't we? There's a lot of sorrow attached
to our jobs. There's disappointment, there's
injustice involved in it often, a lot of foolishness, a lot of
crime, a lot of A lot of times. A lot of real shady stuff and
a lot of heartache. Because of our sin. And sorrow
shalt thou eat of it. And with some joy too now in
Christ. We rejoice in it. And we're reminded
of the curse. When we have to work so hard.
It seems like sometimes for so little. And yet it's not little.
When the Lord takes it and blesses us with it. Thorns also and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee." Now you say, well we're not farmers,
we don't deal with thorns and thistles. There's thorns and
thistles at the office too. That represents something you
see. That represents something. There's always something fighting
you. Isn't there? There is, isn't
there? Always something fighting you. Thou shalt eat of the herb
of the field, and the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." And whether you work in an air-conditioned
office or out digging a ditch, again, that sweat represents
something. White-collar work ain't all it's
cracked up to be. People, you know, working hard,
digging ditches. I've done both. There ain't no easy one. There
ain't no way out of this. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it
wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt
return. And that's what we should be reminded of. We should be
humbled instead of getting proud about it, like we did something.
Yeah, you did something all right. That's why everything's messed
up. Instead of being humble and grateful
to the Lord when we work and are sustained, we tend to be
more like this guy that we're going to see in this
parable. And remember this verse now regarding all spiritual and
temporal things. This is a good You know people
love to memorize, and there's some beautiful verses that people
memorize. There's nothing wrong with memorizing
John 3 16. There's nothing wrong with that. Memorize this one
while you're at it. For who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?
Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory? If God gave
the increase, if God caused his ground to produce for this man,
then why is he glorying? Why is he saying so many I's
and my's and me's in this parable? As if thou hadst not received
it. That's a good one to remember
in everything now, physical things, earthly, temporal things, and
in all spiritual Blessings we received them at his hand graciously
freely He said to his disciples freely you have received freely
give Our text is speaking of temporal goods this man Physically
wealthy and earthly things But it has a very spiritual message You really can't separate them,
can you, because it's not a far jump when people start thinking
that they can provide for themselves physically, and they do think
that. Well, I've got this. Look at all I've got. Man, I worked hard for all this. Whether he did or not, he may
have, may not have. May have inherited a lot of it
and just hired a bunch of servants to do everything for him. He's
still bragging about it. But it's not a far jump when
people start thinking they can provide for themselves physically.
It goes hand in hand that they don't really think they need
God to save them either. They just don't. They appreciate
God giving them a chance now. That's only right. It's only
right for God to do that. You know, thank you Lord for
the fair shake that you owed us anyway. But we'll take salvation
from here. Is that what passes for a gospel
around here? You better believe it is. That's
exactly what it is. All around us, all in this world.
No, God owes us hail, and salvation is all of grace, all of the Lord,
and it was complete, and is complete, start to finish, completed by
Christ, the Savior of sinners. Oh, and by the way, if you have
a job, a family, a house, a car, anything to eat, anything at
all, he gave you that too. Every bit of it. You don't have
anything you didn't receive. And neither do I. The ground
brought forth. Remember that one? Verse 17, 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 my goods. Now in spite of what we
just read in the scriptures, that the earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof. He uses my an awful lot, doesn't
he? Talking about something that doesn't belong to him. He uses
my an awful lot. in my Now listen to this now. I want to show you some things
in the scriptures Psalm 50 verse 10 because this is stuff you
see I Think it was Simon Peter that said I think it's meat to
put you in remembrance of these things though You already know
them you already know this But do you know it right now? Do
you know it tonight? Will you know it in the morning
when you get up to go to work? Psalm 50 verse 10 For every beast of the forest
is mine. This is God speaking. And the
cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains
and the wild beasts of the field are mine. Now we've got two persons
here saying my, my, my. One of them's God and one of
them's a sinner. Who do you think is right? If
I were hungry, let's look at verse 12 now. If I were hungry,
I wouldn't tell you. You think God needs anything
from you? People do, don't they? Oh, we're
gonna do something for the Lord. Really. If I were hungry, I wouldn't
tell you, for the world is mine and the fullness thereof. If
he needed anything, he wouldn't ask you for it. It's all his.
Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High
and call upon me in the day of trouble, I'll save you. And here's
what's gonna happen. Instead of you bragging, you're
gonna glorify me. You see that last part of verse
15? I wanted you to look at or look
right on the page at that. And me too now. God doesn't need
us for anything. If we thank Him for what He's
given, honor Him and glorify Him and worship Him, we're going
to give Him glory even for that. We're going to give Him the glory
in all of it. In everything we have. And in
having the good sense to thank Him for it. Spiritual and physical. Isn't it shocking that God has
to remind us that we need him and he don't need us? It's amazing,
isn't it, that he actually has to remind us of that. How long-suffering is he to remind
us and teach us instead of just getting rid of us? If it was
me, you better be glad I'm not God. Because I would overlook
all of my foolishness like we do. I'd just end it. I wouldn't put up with it. But
boy, I'm not, and he is, and he's gracious. He's long-suffering.
He delights to show mercy. God also said in Haggai 2.8,
the silver is mine and the gold is mine. All of it. We sing that song,
take my silver and my gold, and I still sing that song because,
you know, the Lord does give us some, and we say it's ours.
We can understand that as we sing that song. I believe we
can sing it. We talk about our money all the
time, don't we? Are you going to quit doing that?
Probably not. So we sing this song, but we understand when
we do that the Lord, He wouldn't be taking anything from us if
He didn't give it to us first. Remember what David said? Who
are we that we are counted worthy to even give you what you gave
us? And then look at the language
of this rich man. My fruits, my goods, my barns. Four times
he uses the word my and five times the word I. Nine times
I and my in that brief statement. You think that's a coincidence? Notice that while he was trying
to figure out something to do with all that God had blessed
him with, Though he didn't consider it
to even be the blessing of God. He didn't even acknowledge it
as the blessing of God. He said, look what I did. Just like Nebuchadnezzar. God
had to teach him, didn't he? While he's trying to figure
out what he's going to do with all that God blessed him with,
the thought never crossed his mind to honor God with it. To give any of it to God. To
further the cause of Christ in this world. Or to help anybody
else with it at all. The thought never crossed his
mind. If it did, he quickly dismissed
it. I'll just have to build me some bigger barns, I guess, you
know. He's not that different from
us, is he? What a great contrast, though,
now, to those who know God and are blessed of God to acknowledge,
as we ought, that everything is from Him. And He didn't give
it to us to make us richer. I'm telling you now. Turn to
Acts 4 with me. Let's look at this together.
Let me say this. Clearly, it makes us richer,
and that's part of it. But what I mean by that is this.
He didn't give it to us just so we'd consume it on our own
lusts. That's what I mean by that. Acts
4, 32. Think about this guy in our parable.
I, I, I, I, I, five times, and my, my, my, my. And that's not
a very long statement, is it? It's hard to squeeze that many
in, but he managed it. And that's us now. Look at Acts
4.32. Now this is when the Lord, and
the answer to the difference is in the text. Look at it with
me. 4.32, and the multitude of them that believed. that believed
on Christ, now their faith was in Him, were of one heart and
of one soul. Neither said any of them that
all of the things which he possessed was his own. They weren't saying
my. They weren't saying my barns,
my goods, my fields, my fruits. But they had all things common.
and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus. Now you think about this. They
were very generous, they were very giving people, but they
didn't preach about giving. They preached on Christ. That's
important now. They didn't preach about being
generous. They preached on Christ. And that'll make you generous,
won't it? If God did something for you, if he sent his son for
you, Now that's the message, that's the motivation. It's Christ. With power they preached of the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus. They preached Christ crucified
and risen. And, and here's what made them
to differ. Who made thee to differ? Great grace was upon them all.
That's why it was that way and not the other way. All right,
now verse 19. And he's still talking about,
I will now, I will. I will say to my soul, soul,
thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease,
eat, drink, and be merry. Now we begin to see something
here. This man's problem clearly was
not that he was wealthy. Many believers have been wealthy
in the scriptures and in our experience, and blessed of the
Lord, and they weren't like this man. Great grace was upon them. But his problem here now, it
wasn't that he was wealthy, his problem was that he thought it
was his, first of all, we've seen that, and in this verse
we see an even worse problem. He trusted in his riches. Take
your ease. Rest. Take it easy. Everything's
fine. Why? Because look at all I've
got. He trusted in them. That's a problem. Being wealthy
is not a problem. Trusting in them is a problem. He said you can take your ease.
You can rest. You can be confident. Don't worry
about anything because of all the wealth that you have. Listen
to Paul teaching young Timothy in 1st Timothy 6.17, charge them
that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust
in uncertain riches. If that's your rest now, I've
got so much stuff that nothing can touch me. If that's your
rest, you have no rest. You have no refuge. Your trust
is a spider's web. You believe in yourself and it'll
be a disaster. Listen to this now, that they
be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the
living God. If you can say to your soul,
take it easy. It better be because you belong
to him. I can say that to my heart. Rest.
I have to constantly say that to myself. Quit it. Rest. Sit
down. Shut up. Rest. But not for the reason this man
did. But in the living God who giveth
us richly all things to enjoy. It's not that we should not have
things and enjoy them. Enjoy them. Don't feel guilty
about it. You worked hard and the Lord
blessed you. Don't feel guilty about being wealthy if you are.
There's nothing, not a thing in the world, but don't trust
in it. Don't trust yourself. Don't trust your ability to provide
anything that's necessary. Listen to this now. That they
do good. And that they be rich in good
works. Don't just be rich in wealth. Be also rich in good works. Ready to distribute, willing
to communicate. Being givers. Now God gives us
things to enjoy and he gives richly. Has he not? I know that's
a relative thing but there ain't no poor folk in this house. I
don't care. We may have gotten used to a
certain standard of living. We may be struggling to meet
that. There ain't no poor folk in here. If we think so, we don't
know what it means. Have no idea what it means. He gives richly, doesn't he?
To his people. David said, I've never seen him
begging bread. As an old man, he was able to
say that. But don't trust those riches
now. That's easy to do. That's why we're stacking it
up. This world stacks it up because
they think it makes them invulnerable to all of the dangers, all of
the things that can go bad. I can take care of it. No, you
can't. Do not trust in them. Trust the
one that gave them. and be thankful not proud be
generous not selfish but above all don't trust in riches but
in God trust in God this man said take thine ease and so on
that basis of his wealth he thought he was able to rest he didn't
rest very long did he? he wasn't easy in his mind and
heart long And a false refuge don't last
long, none of them do. Take thine ease. Enjoy it while
you can. There's only one true resting
place for a sinner. The one who said, come unto me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. And it's not just the uncertainty
of riches. You know, that's the problem.
Riches are uncertain. We learn from Job that they are,
don't we? He lost it all. He lost it quickly. In other
scripture too, now, James said, go to now. He said, come on now. That's what he said, come on
now. You that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and
continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. You may
have done that yesterday, tomorrow everything can change. Whereas
you know not what shall be on the morrow, for what is your
life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and
then vanisheth away, for that you ought to say, if the Lord
will. Now you're trusting Him. Now
you're looking to Him. You're not looking to yourself.
Here's what I'm going to do. Here's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to go. I'm going to buy. I'm going to
sell. I'm going to get gain. No. I'm holding up my hand to
the Lord. If the Lord will, I'll live and
I'll do some things and I may even prosper in them if it's
His will. What a difference. What a difference. But now you rejoice in your boastings
and all such rejoicing is evil, James said. It's evil. But even
if you have wealth in this life and never lose it. Maybe you're
born with a silver spoon in your mouth and you die and leave millions. You never lose it. It's not going
to do anything about your sin. It's not going to help you in
that. How can you rest? How can you take your ease? How
can you say with this man, be merry, when your sin's not been
dealt with yet? How are you gonna do that? Listen to God now. Come now,
God says. Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be a scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow. And though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. If you've done business with
God in that, now you can say, take thine ease. My sins are
gone. But all the money in the world
won't pay for one sin, not one. Only one thing can wash sins
away. John said unto him that loved
us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. That's the
only way sins go away. They're washed in his blood.
In other words, he took them. He took the sins. He took the
penalty for them and bore in his own body the sins of the
elect of God. And all of the wrath of God against
our sin was poured out upon him in our place. Substitution. And all of our sins were washed
away, by His stripes we're healed. We're healed of the disease of
sin. If you will, Lord, you can make me clean. I will. You talk
about clean. Spotless, without blame, before
Him in love. Purchased with the very blood
of God. And pure. 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, For you
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." Now I don't really know any poor people. I think
about this sometimes, you know, when the Lord's blessed me and
I've got a little extra. We've always got extra, don't
we? We live really well. I think,
who do I know that is in need, you know? And sometimes that
arises, but I don't even really know any poor people, do you?
Not many. So we're rich in the things of
this world. But that's nothing. That's not
what 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 is talking about. That ye through
his poverty might be rich. Listen to what the Lord told
the angel to write unto the church in Smyrna. Revelation 2.8. These things saith the first
and the last which was dead and is alive. I know thy works and
tribulation and poverty. They had some tribulation then. The Lord for a time there caused
his church to be greatly persecuted. And they weren't begging for
bread. I don't believe that ever happens. But they were, it was
tough. It was tough. He said, I know, I know about
that. But he put in parentheses there,
I wish I had told you to turn there, but Revelation 2.8, he
said, I know your poverty, in parentheses, but thou art rich. Reckon what he was talking about. The one who owns everything,
and the one who keeps the books now and knows who is going to
be forever blessed the one who wrote the book of life put the
names down in it he says you're rich you don't lack anything
that means anything and this rich man said in our
text my soul I will say to my soul. And then he found out that
even that wasn't his. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
this night thy soul. Can God be sarcastic? Oh yeah,
it's in the scriptures quite a bit, isn't it? Thy soul. He's saying it the way this man
did, sarcastically. You know how I know that? Because
then he said this, this night thy soul shall be required of
thee. You know what that word means,
required? It means demanded back. I gave it to you and I'm fixing
to take it back. So thy soul is sarcastic, isn't
it? You better believe it is. to
demand back. Even our soul is given to us.
Everything. Everything I am. Do you remember
what Paul said? By the grace of God, I am what
I am. And listen to the rest of that.
1 Corinthians 15. But by the grace of God, I am
what I am. We are a soul. People say I have a soul. No,
you have a body. You are a soul. And we are what
we are by God's grace. And he said this, and the grace
which he bestowed upon me was not in vain. I labored more abundantly
than they all. And this man, I'm sure he worked
hard. Paul said, I worked hard. But
here's a little difference. Paul said this, yet not I. And we do. But who's going to
get the glory? Yet not I, but the grace of God
which was with me." Boy, what a difference. What I am, who I am, what I have,
what I'm able to do even, all given by God. That's the lesson
tonight. Everything you have is by His
grace. Every spiritual blessing is by His grace. The forgiveness
of sin is by His grace. Righteousness before God is given
by his grace. It's imputed to us And earned
by Christ Here's another way to say it
I am nothing I Have nothing and I can do nothing But for his
grace The sarcasm here that's all and
there's more now I Look at this. Then whose shall those things
be which thou hast provided? That's sarcastic too. I believe
I'm using the right word there, sarcasm. The Lord knew who this man's
soul belonged to and he knew who provided the things that
this man had. And it wasn't that man. The things which thou hast provided. Thy soul is demanded back. I gave it and I'm recalling it.
And the things thou hast provided, not only did I provide them,
but I didn't provide them for you. Notice that? I didn't provide
them for you. I provided them for somebody
else. And I just used you as a pawn. So that other people
would have those things. And you don't even know who they're
gonna be. Wow, you talk about humbling now. I provided him for somebody else.
And do you know ultimately who God provided him for? You do,
don't you? Ultimately now, God provides
everything for his sheep. Everything. This man's stuff
and everybody else's. God settles all the books in
favor of his sheep. Quit worrying." Well, you're
like, okay, I will. I'll just quit worrying. Not
that easy, is it? Quit. Maybe I didn't say it strong
enough. Oh my. So is he, verse 21, that layeth
up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. What does it mean to be rich
toward God? We've already seen quite clearly
that God doesn't need anything. It's not about God needing anything. I know I say this all the time
but religious songs are so stupid. Jesus needs a few good men. No
he don't. He don't need any men. He said
if you don't glorify me I'll get some rocks to do it for me. If we're not in the dust we just
hadn't heard him have we? Because he has a way of putting
us in the dust doesn't he? He said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't
tell you. What can we give God? Well, a couple of things. I believe
this is what it is to be rich toward God. And here's why I
think that. Let's look at it together in
Mark 12. We've got time here. Mark 12, 41. Mark 12 41 and Jesus sat over
against the treasury and beheld how the people cast money into
the treasury and many that were rich cast in much. And there
came a certain poor widow and she threw in two mites which
make a farthing and he called unto him his disciples and saith
unto them. Now you think about that, picture
this in your mind now. There's people coming into the
temple now, rich people giving You know, they're writing out
checks and they're giving all these impressive amounts of money. And here's a poor little widow
woman that has two mites. I forget how much that is. It
ain't much. It's pennies. And he called his disciples.
We make a big deal out of people giving a lot. The Lord made a
big deal out of this little old poor woman. He said, y'all come
over here. Come over here and look at this.
Watch this. Listen to this. Verily I say unto you that this
poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast
into the treasury. For they all did cast in of their
abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living. Who do you
think she was giving that money to? I believe this teaches us something
about what it is to be rich toward God. It doesn't have to do with
amounts and that which impresses men. It doesn't even have to do with
practical things, you know. Two mites wouldn't pay the light
bill, would it? It doesn't have anything to do
with that, being rich toward God. We want to pay the light
bill. We need to understand what it
is to be rich toward God. I believe she was giving that
money to the Lord, don't you? And he said, look how much she
gave. She gave more than anybody. That's got to have something
to do with it, doesn't it? I believe it does. I believe it does. And
turn with me to Psalm 116.12. I believe this has something to
do with it too. Psalm 116.12. David asks a question and then
answers it. What shall I render unto the
Lord for all His benefits toward me? You think about that. And
that's the question, isn't it? I mean, look what He's done for
us. And then how are we going to do anything for Him? How do
you do that? How do you even think about it?
How do you consider anything really doing anything for the
Lord? Well, you kind of don't. You kind of don't. You kind of
just realize, you know, the Lord doesn't need me anyway. It's
not about that. It's not about that. And then
David answers the question. What am I going to render unto
the Lord? What am I going to do for Him? What can I give God?
And we want to, don't we? We want to. We want to honor
Him. We want to do something. I will take. That's the answer to the question.
I will take. What am I going to do for the
Lord? I'm going to keep taking what He gives. That's what delights
Him. The Lord doesn't glory in what
you do for Him. The Lord's glory is in what He
does for us. And you know the best thing you
can do? Thank you, Lord. Thank you. I will take the cup
of salvation and I'll keep taking it. I'll take it in picture and
type as He's ordained. I'll take it with all my heart
because I know that He is all of my salvation. And I'll call upon the name of
the Lord. Instead of doing something for
Him, instead of thinking, even presuming that I could do anything
for Him anyway, I'm going to keep calling on Him. And say,
Lord, would you do this for me? Do you know that's what glorifies
God? Our Lord said, My Father is glorified
in that you bear much fruit. And that's it now. The fruit
of the Spirit is faith, love, joy, peace. Resting in Him. Believing in Him. Receiving from
Him. Being blessed by Him. Thanking
Him. To be rich toward God is not to do something for Him. It's to receive what He did for
you. And He gave you that. If you receive it, He gave you
that too. Faith is what receives. What
God's provided, salvation, forgiveness of sin, righteousness, peace,
rest, reconciliation with God. Faith is what receives that. Him. And He gives you the faith
too. It's to trust Him. And He gives us that. When we
trust Him, who did what for who? So you see what it is to be rich
toward God. Religions going around, look
what we did for Jesus. That's what this man would have
said too if he was religious. It was all about him, wasn't
it? But by his grace, may it always be all about him. May he make us rich toward him.
Amen, let's bow.