Back, we had some good meetings
down in Houston, I thought, but it's always good to be back home.
Now, Psalm 49 here, this psalm is addressed to all people. It
says there in verse 1, hear this all ye people, give ear all ye
inhabitants of the world, both low and high together. He means
those of low honor, those of high honor, rich and poor together. This is for all people, all kinds
of sinners. And this is the word of God.
We're not talking here, we're not listening to the word of
a man, we're listening to the word of God. It says there in verse
3, my mouth shall speak of wisdom and the meditation of my heart
shall be of understanding. He's saying this is God's word
I'm speaking. Look there in verse 4, I will
incline my ear to a parable. See, the psalmist, he's inclining
his ear to God too. He's with us, listening to God,
getting this parable from God. And then he says, I will open
my dark saying, my parable upon the harp. Having heard the word
of God from God, then he's going to deliver it to us in the form
of a song, a psalm. Now there's a lot of people talking
in the world today. And most of what we hear in this
world is of no value whatsoever. It's of no spiritual, eternal
value at all. In fact, most of what we hear
in this day is by example and by word teaching young people
to go after riches and honor in this world. To go after wealth. They show you all this wealth
in videos and all this wealth in the movies and all that. That's
supposed to be happiness and honor. You want to be liked,
and you want to have more people following you than anybody else. You have all this honor for men.
And this is what God's talking about in this word. If that's
the case, and I go through this life living for riches, living
for honor, expecting to do enough to make God receive me in the
end, He asked this question, verse 5. Wherefore, why should
I fear in the days of evil when the iniquity of my heels shall
compass me about? The days of evil are the days
when we're going to draw near to death and we know it's coming. We're going to be drawing near
to death and facing death and the grave and eternal judgment.
We know it's coming. And the iniquity of my heels
is all my past sins when they compass me about. Right now,
while we're young, we may not think about our sins as much.
But when you face death, and you know after that the judgment,
we're gonna think about our sins then. I've talked with a few
men who were dying, and even men that had a good hope, but
all of them were concerned by the fact that they were encompassed
about with sin. because it's real then. Now you
stand before the judge and it's real. This whole thing we've
been doing for years and treating more flippantly than we ought
to and not giving the attention we ought to to the gospel and
what have you, when those days come, it's going to get real.
It's going to get real. Look here at Ecclesiastes 11
to your right. past Psalm, past Proverbs to
Ecclesiastes just before the Song of Solomon. Look here, Ecclesiastes
11 verse 9. Rejoice, O young man, in thy
youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth,
and walk in the ways of thine heart, in the sight of thine
eyes. But know thou that for all these things God will bring
thee into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from
your heart and put away evil from your flesh for childhood
and youth are vanity. How am I going to remove sorrow
from my heart? He's saying so that when you
face that day you won't have sorrow. How am I going to remove
that? How am I going to remove evil
from my flesh so that in that day I won't have sorrow? Look
at the next verse. Remember now thy creator in the
days of thy youth. While the evil days come not,
there's those evil days he's talking about. While the evil
days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say,
I have no pleasure in them. He said those days are coming.
If God appoints us to live to an old age, those days are coming.
Read on. While the sun or the light or
the moon or the stars be not darkened, nor the clouds return
after the rain, he said right now before days become so dreary,
Seek the Lord. He said, in the day when the
keepers of the house, that is your hands, shall tremble, and
the strong men shall bow themselves. Even the strongest are going
to be bent and bowed in the old age. And the grinders, the teeth,
cease, because they're few. And those that look out of the
windows be darkened, sight becomes dim, and the doors shall be shut,
and the streets will become shut-ins. When the sound of the grinding
is low and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird. When you
can't hear well, sound aggravates you. The least sound. When you can't hear very well,
the sound of a little bird, if you can hear it, it's just aggravating. I can't explain that to you,
but it's so. And he says, And you'll rise up at the voice of
a bird, startled by the least little thing, and all the daughters
of music shall be brought low, hearings gone. Also when they
shall be afraid of that which is high, and fear shall be in
the way, the almond tree shall flourish, you'll be full of gray
hair, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall
fail, you'll be so weak, you can't even step over a grasshopper.
Because man goeth to his long home, We die and the mourners
go about the streets at our funeral or we die sooner. The silver cord be loosed or
the golden bowl be broken in your head or the pitcher be broken
at the fountain, the heart or the wheel broken at the cistern,
that is providence makes you to die sooner. Then, whichever
the case will be, then shall the dust return to the earth
as it was, that is your body and mine, and the spirit shall
return to God who gave it. We're not just going to go to
the grave and that's it. Then we're going to go to God
as it is appointed unto men once to die and then the judgment.
We're going to go to God to be judged. We can't escape it. The
day's coming. So this is the question. Why
should I fear in the days of evil when the iniquity of my
heels shall compass me about? Why should I fear? Well, we're
about to see two ways that all men go through life. And you
and me, right here, we're going through life one of these two
ways. And the first way is trusting my accomplishments in life. The
second way is trusting Christ. And here's the point. If I go
through life trusting my accomplishments, my honor, my riches, when the
evil days come, when I face death and the grave and judgment, I'm
going to be fearful because I'm going to be compassed about with
sins and I'll have great reason to fear. But if I go through
life trusting Christ when those days come, I won't have any reason
to fear. No reason to fear. My life is
going to just begin when I lay down this body of death. So that's
what he's telling us now. Are you interested in this word?
He says, hearken all you people in here. Now will you hear this
word? First of all, there are those that face death knowing
that all their days they lived for riches and honor. They live for riches and honor. They know they're going to face
God in judgment. And the question is, wherefore
should I fear in the days of evil? If this is me, and I've
gone through my life, and I'm facing God now, having lived
for myself, for my belly, for the riches and honors of this
world, and now I see my sins, I see them come passed about
with sin, and I know I'm meeting God in judgment, why should I
fear? Because no man can by his riches,
pay a ransom price to make God receive him. Nobody can pay God
and make God receive him. Look here in verse 6. They that
trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of
their riches, none of them can by any means redeem his brother
nor give to God a ransom for him, that he should still live
forever and not see corruption. for the redemption of their soul
is precious. It's costly and it ceases forever. No sinner can do any works to
redeem ourselves and we can't do any works to redeem our brother.
And we can't take the riches of this world and pay God off
and make God receive us. It matters not how great the
multitude of a man's riches are. He can't do it. Listen to this,
you know you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold. You know that the Catholic Church,
they tell sinners they can actually pay. They can pay silver and
gold, money, to have their sins absolved. That can't happen. That'll never happen. You can't
do that. So then Christ said, what's a
man profited if he shall gain the whole world? and lose his
own soul. What's he going to give in exchange
for his soul? And skin for skin, a man will
give everything he's got for his soul. But Christ is saying,
you don't have enough. We don't have enough to give
for our soul. There have been some extremely wealthy people
in the world. There are some extremely wealthy
people in this world right now. Their great, great, great grandchildren
won't spend it all. That's how wealthy some people
are in this world. God is saying here, if you took all that and
combined it together, redemption is such a costly and precious
price, it wouldn't pay. It wouldn't be enough to pay. Well, what's the redemption price
that God demands for a man's soul then? If it's so precious,
what is it? It's God's own son. It's the
life, the blood of God's own Son. The Son of Man came to give
His life a ransom for many. That's what it takes. That's
why it's precious. You weren't redeemed with corruptible
things of silver and gold, but with the precious, that means
costly, rare, costly blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
or without spot who was ordained before the foundation of the
world but was manifest in these last times for you. You think
of how precious. For one to redeem his people,
his brother, this one could redeem his brother. We can't redeem
our brother. This one could redeem his brother.
But to do it, he had to be a spotless man. He had to be a sinless man.
Find me one. Find me one in a million. But
he's the one. You see how precious? You see
how precious? A man without sin. Only a man
without sin could be made to bear the sin of his brethren.
Here's something else that makes this one precious. Find me a
man that's obedient. Can you find one in a million?
Only this one. out of all the men in the world
in every generation, this is the only man who was obedient
to the Father. How obedient? He, in obedience,
presented himself to be made sin, to be made guilty under
the law because Romans 5.13 says, God will not impute sin where
there is no law. That means unless a man's been
made sin under the law, God won't impute sin to him. God won't
charge him with sin. So he had to present himself
in the Garden of Gethsemane to God for God to make him sin for
his people. And it was such an act of obedience
that even the spotless man, even this sinless Lamb of God troubled
with it. He had trouble with it. Without
sin, but he had trouble with it. He was in agony of soul,
sweating great drops of blood considering what he was about
to be made. And men want to reduce that just
to some legal transaction. Are you kidding me? That's precious
obedience is what that is. And it was precious in that he
underwent being cursed of God in place of His people for God
to be just and His law honored and for Him to justify His people
and be the justifier of His people. This is what Christ did. That's
precious obedience, brethren. That's precious obedience. He
paid a ransom price to God's justice which was His own life's
blood. That's the only blood God would
receive. The only life God would receive,
that's how precious it is. Without the shedding of blood
there's no remission, so now once in the end of the world
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. What God's telling you and me
here is, if you go after riches and you accumulate all the riches
in the world so that you make Bill Gates look like a pauper, You haven't got anything of any
value because you don't have Christ. You're going to die like
a dog. That's what he's saying. Look
down at the bottom. Look down at the last man. Verse
20. Man that is in honor and understandeth not. He's like
the beasts that perish. Next time you pass something
on the side of the road that got run over, if you're without
Christ, just know, I'm going to die like that beast died. having lived a meaningless life. You see why I should fear if
I face God trusting my riches and my honor and my accomplishments
and my work? You see why I should fear? Men hear this. What do they do? Look at verse 10. For he seeth
that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish
and leave their wealth to others. But their inward thought is that
their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to
all generations, and so they call their lands after their
own names." They're thinking God's going to actually receive
them and commend them because they're leaving their houses
and their riches and providing all this for their children. And they've done all this for
them, surely that'll count for something with God. It won't
count for anything. They named their lands after
their own names. That tells you why they did it
all. To make a name for themselves. It wasn't about providing for
anybody. It wasn't about providing for children. It was to make
a name for self, that's what it was about. And then men like
this die and perish like a brute beast with no understanding.
Verse 12, nevertheless man being in honor abideth not. He's like
the beast that perish. Drop down to verse 14. Like sheep
they're laid in the grave. Death shall feed on them and
the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning and
their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
And here's what he's saying. If we live and die without Christ,
And we're going to live no different than the beast, but here's the
thing. He's not saying that you're just going to die and your body's
going to consume away and you're going to be annihilated and that's
going to be it. No, he's saying everything we put our trust in,
everything we trusted in, all the works of our hands, everything
we thought was going to commend us to God, it's going to be eaten
up by worms and destroyed just like our body will. Because it's
all the work of our hands. And when our body's eaten up
and destroyed, there went all our works. A little worm destroyed
it. You see what he's saying? And that will be what our life's
work amounted to. Worm food. Worm food. Somebody get the worm, go out
and catch a big fish with it. And they thought they'd leave
a legacy. But God says the only thing this kind of life leaves
is encouragement to the next generation to follow in your
footsteps. Look at verse 13. This their
way is their folly, yet their posterity approve their sayings. How many in here, young people,
you don't have to raise your hands or anything, but I guarantee
you you're in here, and older people do this too, you see a
wealthy man, you see people in honor, and you want to find out,
what do I have to do to follow in their steps? How can I achieve
that? And there's people that dedicate
their lives to trying to do the steps, to follow in those steps
of rich men. And God says to the man who's
the rich man in honor and he's leaving Leaving his legacy, he
said, that's how you've left. You've led the next generation
astray. You led them from God. That's putting these riches and
this honor, this world in a whole new perspective, isn't it? That's
what God says about it. I see these old reruns. I was
watching some old Johnny Carson reruns the other night. And you
watch these wealthy entertainers when they're younger in their
younger days, you know. And a thought comes to my mind. If he could
speak right now from the grave, I wonder if he would say, turn
this off and stop watching me and hear what God says right
now. How much you want to bet? Secondly, there are men who face
death trusting Christ. Wherefore, if I'm one of these
men who face death trusting Christ, why should I be fearful when
the evil days come and the iniquity of my heels can pass me about?
Why should I be fearful? I shouldn't. I shouldn't. Why? Verse 15, but God will redeem
my soul from the power of the grave for he shall receive me. That's why. You see, the believer
is going to leave everything behind just like the rich man
is going to. But that's going to be great
gain for the believer. Why? I have a redeemer. That's why. I have a redeemer.
God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave because
Christ redeemed me from the second death. See, the
grave is the first death. The grave is the first death
we face. Then we meet God in judgment and if we don't have
Christ, if we're not found in Him having His righteousness
alone, then we're going to face a second death which is being
cast out into eternal darkness to suffer for all eternity. But see, I don't have to worry
about that. And you that believe Christ don't
have to worry about it because Christ redeemed us from that
second death. And therefore He says when you
die that first death, you won't die. You won't die. Christ has come and made me partake
of the first resurrection. He's regenerated me and made
me to know I have redeemed thee. Thou art mine. He's made me to
know this. And so He's made me to know that
second death has no power over me. And the first death has no
power over me. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection in regeneration. On such the
second death has no power. But they shall be priests of
God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a set number of years. Eternity. Grave is thy mercy toward me.
Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. He's delivered
me. Believers may not be held in
honor by this world. They may pass through this world
and nobody even know them. I know some like that. I'm related
to some like that. I am one like that. Men may pass
through this world and never possess riches. Believers. But we're looking to Christ at
God's right hand. And there's our riches. There's
our riches. Listen, our conversation, our
citizenship is in heaven. From whence also we look for
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body. that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is
able even to subdue all things unto himself. Look at 1 Corinthians
15. 1 Corinthians 15. I know this is too... You can't
do this and I can't do this and we just can't hardly believe
something we can't do. There's a lot you and I can't
do. And look at this, 1 Corinthians
15, 51. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep. We're talking about believers
here, but we shall all be changed. We're not going to all die and
be in the grave when this happens. Some are going to be alive, but
we're going to all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption. Look at that word,
must. And this mortal must put on immortality. Why? Christ satisfied
justice and God's justice demands this must happen. That's our
guarantee. God's justified it. This must
happen. And so it shall. So when this
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that's written, death is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law.
Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. He took away the sting of death.
He took away sin and He took away the strength of sin by obeying
the law on behalf of His people. He's given us the victory. So,
let's see the application now. Go back to our text, Psalm 49.
God's going to give us the application of this. Verse 16. Be not thou afraid
when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased.
For when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away. His glory shall
not descend after him. Notice the word descend. His
glory is not going to descend after him. Though while he lived,
he blessed his soul. Don't men do this? Oh, I'm blessed. I'm so blessed. And men will praise him, men
will praise thee when you do well to yourself. But he shall
go to the generation of his fathers, they shall never see light. You see, he followed his father
too. He followed his father in this.
He's going to go to the generation of his fathers. He's going to
go right where his fathers went that he followed. And none of
them will ever see the light of Christ. Man that's in honor
and understandeth not is like the beast that perished. God's
saying to you and me, don't envy a rich man and don't go after
the honor of this world. Don't do it. Don't do it. When such men die, they're going
to carry nothing away with them. They're going to descend. They're
not going to ascend. They're going to descend into the depths,
into darkness. And when they descend, that glory
that they had on this earth, It's not going with them. That
honor they had, men respect them, that's not going with them. That's
not going with them. What do you think that posterity
that followed that man into that dark place, what do you think,
how do you think they're going to respect him? They're not going
to hold him in honor. You led me to hell is what you
did. God takes the restraints off and lets men do what they
will. What do you think, how do you think they're going to
respect a man that led them to hell? There won't be any honor there.
There won't be any light there. While he lived, men praised him
for doing well for himself, but God said he'll never see the
light of Christ. Here's what he's telling us. Listen to Psalm
62.10. Trust not in oppression. Don't oppress people. Don't try
to steal and rob. Trust not in oppression and become
not vain in robbery. And if riches increase, God may
just be pleased to give you some increase in riches. He has done
that for some believers. But if riches increase, set not
your heart upon them. I don't know if my heart's set
upon them. Can you let go of them? Can you go down in life? You're stationed in life and
be content? If I can't, my heart's set on them. Don't set your heart
on them. What's that old song? Hold on
loosely, but don't let go? Well, this is hold on loosely
and let go. A little, listen to Psalm 37, 16. A little that a righteous man
hath is better than the riches of many wicked. The little. No matter how much
honor and riches a man has, if he dies without Christ, he's
dying without understanding. He's dying without understanding
of God. Christ said, if you've seen me,
you've seen the Father. That's how we understand who
God is. We understand God's providence. Everything He's doing in life,
we understand it by looking to Christ. Christ is redeemed of
people. God's doing everything to honor
Christ by bringing that people to faith in Him. He raises up,
He throws down, He makes rich, He makes poor. Everything God
is doing though is for Christ's glory and to bring His people
to Christ. Everything. He believes this life without
any understanding of God's promises, of His covenant promises, that
every covenant promise of God is yes and amen in Christ. He
leaves this life without understanding of what true riches really are. True riches are not, you know,
having the fancy car and the big house and the big bank account. There's a scripture in Proverbs,
or maybe no, it's Ecclesiastes, I think. I almost put it in my
notes. But it talks about if you put
a bank full of money in the bank, what do you just do? You just
go sit and look at it? Well, you're just looking at the statement
every month that comes out. It says that in the book. It
says men that have accumulated riches, for what? Just to look
at them? God calls them cankered because
they're not in use. They're not helping anybody.
You're not helping anybody with them. The man thinks he's really
set his nest on high and got him some security because of
his riches. Our riches aren't security. God
can take them away tomorrow and we'll see, oh, it was God I should
have been trusting, not my riches. All riches do, God says, is turn
us from Him and make us trust Him. Because our heart begins to love
them more than God and we begin to trust them more than God and
we go after the riches more than God. A man passes through life
not understanding Christ is the pearl of great price. Christ
is the unsearchable riches. That man's missed out on what
true riches really are. Listen to Proverbs 8.18. Christ
is speaking right here. Riches and honor are with me. Yea, durable riches, lasting
riches and righteousness. That's with Him. That's with
Christ. And my prayer is first, brethren, my prayer is God make
us really rich. really rich. If he has to make
us be dirt poor in this world to do it, that's fine. If he
gives you Christ, it makes you really rich. That's what I'm
talking about. All right. Amen.