Luke chapter 12, and let's begin
here in verse 13. And one of the company said unto
him, unto Christ, Master, speak to my brother that he divide
the inheritance with me, Is there anybody here like this
man? Here was Christ standing there in their midst, standing
there face to face with them, and He was preaching to them
the unsearchable riches of Christ. He was preaching to them about
the exceeding riches of God's grace. He was telling them about
riches that surpass anything that this world can possibly
offer us. And yet, while he was speaking,
this man had his mind on one thing. He was thinking about
earthly, worthless riches that his brother had inherited and
he wanted a part of. That's all he had his mind on.
That's all he could think about. We go into this world each week
and we hear a lot of things that men say. We need to hear the
Word of God. We come here to hear what the
true and living God has said. That's why when I start out in
each message, I try to start by reading the Scriptures to
you. And if I give you an introduction,
it's not very long. I want to get right to this Word.
Because we hear enough of what men say, we need to hear what
God says. And here this man sits there,
face to face with the Master, hearing the Word of the Lord. And his mind is a thousand miles
away, and he's thinking about earthly riches, earthly treasures. That's what his mind was on.
And the Lord rebuked this man. He rebuked him sharply. Look
at verse 14. And he said unto him, Man, who
made me a judge or a divider over you? Christ Jesus is not
a temporal king. His kingdom is not of this earth.
His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. And our Lord Jesus Christ knew
this man had a need that was that was a spiritual need. It was a need in his heart. It
was a need that no temporal money was going to be able to solve
his problem. It was a problem that went all the way to his
heart. Or else he wouldn't have been sitting there thinking what
he was thinking while the Lord was speaking the truth to him.
And therefore Christ wouldn't be turned from the kingdom of
God. He wouldn't be turned from righteousness. He wouldn't be turned from seeking
the good of his lost sheep, of his brethren that God the Father
sent him to seek out. He wouldn't be turned from the
mission, the charge that God gave to him. Christ's business
involves a whole lot more than these earthly matters, and it
involves things far more important than earthly matters. He came forth speaking of eternal
matters, and what we're talking about here has eternal weight. We're talking about how that
God can be just and pour out the full wrath of justice and
execute justice fully upon his chosen children because they've
broken his law. And this is how they have to
die, and this is how they can die, and yet God remained the
Justifier also, and justify His children and shower His children
with mercy." You see, the words we speak, what we're here to
see and to look into in God's Word, and what we're to be seeking
in this life, while we're walking every day that we go through
this life, this Gospel is concerning the righteousness of God. It's
about the weighty matters of justice and judgment and holiness
and this matter of justice being taken care of so that God can
be just to show mercy. And these are the things that
are important. This is the message whereby God's going to cure the
sin of the heart and whereby He's going to save His people
and keep us and grow us and bring us to Himself in glory. So this
is vitally important, vitally important. This is the message
we have to hear, the word we have to hear. And so that's the
one reason that this man desired what he did. The reason he spoke
up and said, Master, speak to my brother that he gives me part
of the inheritance. Have him divide this inheritance
with me. Because his heart was sick. He was covetous. His heart was undone. He was
seeking the wrong thing. He was looking in the wrong direction.
He was looking to the earth. He wasn't looking to Christ.
He was seeking something he could get in this earth for a temporary,
momentary gain rather than seeking eternal life at the hand of the
Master. And so Christ wouldn't turn from
His mission. Let this world, worldly preachers,
will be turned by every little matter that sinners bring to
them and speak to them about. They're right off after that
and trying to fix that problem and deal with that issue and
from one thing to the next that sinners bring up. God's preachers
won't be turned from what they've sent to do. They're following
the Master and what He did. He wasn't turned. He continued
on with His message and wouldn't be turned from His message. Look at verse 15. And he said
unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's
life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
Instead of setting our hearts on perishing things, instead
of having our minds and our thoughts and everything we're thinking
about on things of this world, take heed, take heed. Listen, give every ounce of your
being to pay attention to what God is saying. That's what He's
saying. Take heed. And He says, Beware
of covetousness. These are the words of Christ.
These are the words of God. He said, the flesh profits you
nothing. And the words that I speak unto
you, they're spirit and they're life. These are the words that
matter right here. And he says to us, take heed
of my words and beware of covetousness. Covetousness is more dangerous
than cancer. Covetousness is something to
beware of. It's something to beware of.
An abundance of possessions. They will not profit us spiritually. But here's what they will do.
They will steal away our heart, and they will eat us up, and
they will harden our heart so that we cannot know Christ. That's what they'll do. You know,
men sank with the Titanic because they wouldn't let go of their
possessions. They just kept hoping that at
the last minute somebody would come and save them so that they
could still hold on to their possessions. And for that, they
went to the bottom. And there's some sitting here
tonight that I'm sure are holding on to earthly possessions, earthly
things that you have your heart and your mind set on, and they're
nothing but things that will cause you to sink down faster
to the bottom. Take heed to what Christ says,
beware of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not
in the abundance of the things which he possesses, You get everything
you could possess, all the goods and all the riches this world
has to offer. Can possessions purge you of
your sin? Can possessions justify you before
a holy God? Can possessions make you righteous
and sanctify you so that you can come into the presence of
God and be accepted of God? Of course they can. Why do we
put our hearts and our minds on things that will not profit
us? Why do we set our affection on those things? God chooses
whom He will and He saves whom He will. And that life He gives
is eternal life and that life's in His Son. This is where life
is. But those who are redeemed by Christ and saved, they're
not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold.
They're redeemed with precious blood, valuable blood, blood
that is more valuable than anything. If you ever find out what this
blood did and ever find out that He did it for you, you'll find
this blood to be more precious than anything else in the world. precious blood, as a lamb without
spot and without blemish. These are the things we need
to pay attention to. Life doesn't consist in the possessions. It doesn't. It does not. Look
at verse 16. And He spake a parable unto them,
saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. Now look at this man. This man
was rich already, but his ground brought forth plentifully. and
brought forth more. Well, surely, since he's rich
already, when the ground brings forth more and plenty, he's not
going to set his mind and his heart and his affection on those
things. Surely not. He's already rich. Look here,
what the Lord tells us in this parable shows us what a covetous
heart will do. The first thing is, it'll steal
away your thoughts from God. Verse 17, And he thought within
himself, He didn't seek God, he thought within himself. And
he said, what shall I do because I have no room where to bestow
my fruits? You see, it immediately stole
his thoughts away from God. All he could think about was,
what am I going to do? How am I going to save these
fruits? And then a covetous heart will
steal away our time from seeking Christ because our time will
be taken up with how to build someplace and do something to
save those fruits. Verse 18 says, and he said, this
will I do, I'll pull down my barns and build greater. That's
going to take some time. And all that time, he's got his
thoughts on one thing. He's given his time to earthly,
perishing, worthless things. That's what he's given his time
to. And then a covetous heart steals away your generosity to
your brethren, to those for whom Christ died. Because you save
everything for yourself. Look at here, verse 18. He said,
and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. He didn't
have his mind set on giving anything away. He didn't have his mind
set on helping out his brethren at all. He said, I'm going to
keep them all right here. I'm going to keep them all here.
A covetous heart steals away your faith in Christ to save
you. your dependence upon Christ as
Savior steals that away because riches give us a false sense
of security. We think, well, now we've got
a little more secure. Look at verse 19. And I'll say
to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.
Take thine ease. Eat, drink, be merry. You've
got it made in the shade now. You can just kick back and enjoy
life. But that very God from whom the
covetous heart steals us away, that very God can take it all
away in an instant. Look at 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? So is he that layeth up treasure
for himself, and is not rich toward God. Every treasure that
a man can lay up for himself by the work of his hands, every
single treasure that a man can lay up by the work of his hands,
be it the treasure of his own righteousnesses, whereby he expects
for God to accept him, or be it the treasures of temporal
possessions. Every treasure that a man can
lay up, that he's obtained by the work of his own hands, shall
perish." It'll perish. It will not profit at all. But
the treasure God gives, the riches God gives, are eternal, and they
last forever. They last forever. You remember
Mary sat at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, and she hung on
every word He said. She believed Him. She knew she
had to have Him. She could part with everything
else, but she had to have Christ. She knew Christ was her life.
And she hung on everything He said. And He said this about
her. He said, One thing is needful. One thing. And he says, and Mary
hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from
her. That one thing needful is Christ.
She chose Christ. She cast all her care into the
hand of Christ. And he said, and this one part
will never be taken from her, ever. That man who believes on
Christ and believes that when Christ died, he was buried with
Christ, and his body of sins was laid away and put away when
he was buried with Christ, and that he's risen with Christ,
and that his life really is hid with Christ in God. When this
world is perishing, and this world is burning up, and everything
in this world is vanishing away into nothingness, When Christ,
who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with
Him in glory." You see, these things that we're talking about
are eternal. The things of this earth, everything in it. Please
listen to me. Please listen. And I'll pray,
God. I pray you just reach in your
heart and just lift up your understanding to Him and lift up and enlighten
your eyes and make you to see Him and understand what I'm telling
you is vital. These things on this earth, they're
just here for a moment and they're vanishing away. They're vanishing
away. Moth breaks through and eats
it up. or rust corrupts it, or thieves
break through and steal it. My dad's probably kept every
vehicle he ever bought out in the back of the field. Every
time you go down there, they're just a little more rusted away,
a little more rusted away. Some of them are just about gone.
That's this life. That's everything in it. That's
everything you can accumulate by your hand, by your work, by
your wisdom, by your will, by your doing. Whether it be righteousness,
holiness, or temporal possession. Anything you can get by your
doing, it'll perish. Every bit of it, it'll perish.
Now look here at verse 22. Therefore I say unto you, this
is God speaking. This is Christ Jesus the Lord
speaking. He says, Therefore I say unto
you, take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, neither
for the body, what you shall put on. The life is more than
meat and the body is more than raiment. Now the Lord's not forbidding
us from having a good food and nice clothes. This is a celebration
right here of a funeral and a celebration of a wedding when we come here.
We come in here and we dress like we would if we were going
to a funeral or a wedding, and we're coming before the king.
He's not forbidding nice clothes. That's not what He's forbidding.
Respectable clothing. And He's not forbidding a savings
account. And He's not recommending that
we live in reckless abandon and that we spend recklessly and
things like that. He's not recommending that at
all. The Lord's commanding His child to give Christ your primary
focus in life. That's what He's commanding.
Rather than temporal things. The Lord's telling His child,
the only way we can do so, the only way we can do so, is if
we cast all our care into His hand to provide every temporal
need we have. Because unless we do that, unless
we're depending and believe that God, who spared not His only
Son, but delivered Him up for all of His children, He shall
also with Him freely give us all things that we need in this
life. Unless we believe Him and trust
that to be the case, we can't keep our mind and our attention
focused on Christ as we go through this life. And that's what Christ
is telling us here. And He's telling us this too.
Whatever He gives us that meets our need, be content with what
He gives us. Because don't seek more or don't
seek better. Be content with what He's given
us. Because we can't seek Him preeminently in everything we
do, first in all things, if we're looking for bigger and better
and faster and more stuff in this world. It's impossible to
do it. It's impossible. If Christ is our bread, if He's
that bread from heaven, if He really is to me God in human
flesh, if He's God's own Son come down, the life, the eternal
life, if He is that gift of eternal life from the Father, that living
bread that God the Father has given, who spared not His own
Son but gave Him to me, If He's that bread who says, He that
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood shall never hunger and
never thirst. If He's that bread to me, then
my life in this world consists of more than what I'm putting
in my face. And if He's my Raymond, If Christ
Jesus is all the robe of my righteousness, if He is my complete acceptance
with God, if I have been justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus, If I truly am resting in Christ,
the Spirit of God's revealed it in my heart, and He's revealed
it in your heart, and He's made us to see that Christ is the
propitiation. God set Him forth, He made atonement,
He's pardoned us of our sins, He's put our sins away, He's
made us righteous, and He's all our raiment of righteousness. If that's so, then our life is
more than what we're putting on our back. It's more than that. He is our bread and He is our
raiment. The life is more than meat and
the body is more than raiment. There is more to life than that.
More to life than that. Alright, the Lord is going to
give us some things here and I want to look at each one of
these individually. First of all, when it comes to our food,
He says in verse 24, Consider the ravens. For they neither
sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God
feedeth them. How much more are ye better than
the fowls? Now believer, you're worth more
to God than an old crow. That's what Christ said. You're
worth more than just an old crow. We're no better than a crow by
nature. No better than one by nature. But like that old crow
is fed by God at the hand of another, God has fed us at the
hand of another, and He's clothed us at the hand of another by
Christ. He's feeding us by the work Christ did. That crow can't
sow. A raven can't sow. He doesn't
go out and sow. He doesn't plant a garden. But
God feeds him. God feeds him from where somebody
else has planted. He feeds him from dropping crumbs
to him from somewhere else or some other means He feeds him.
But God feeds him. Well, likewise, we can't sow. We didn't have anything to sow
with. We're dead in trespasses and sins. But He's the seed who
came down, Christ is. He's the seed who didn't spare
His life, but laid down His life. And like a seed must be broken,
He was broken and buried in the earth. And from Him, rising out
of the earth like a plant coming out of the ground, He's brought
forth fruit, His children. And He's come and that incorruptible
seed has entered our hearts and we've been born of the seed of
Abraham, of Christ Himself, so that now we behold what He's
done for us. He did that. He provided all
that. Likewise, He'll provide everything we need, temporally
speaking, so that His seed will never be found begging bread.
That's what He promises. The old crow doesn't reap. He
didn't go out harvesting in a field and go out and bring in a harvest.
We couldn't reap either. All we brought about when we
were dead and trespassing sin was fruit unto death. That's
all we brought forth. And yet Christ has come forth
and by what He's done, He's reaped the harvest. And what a harvest
it is. Life, righteousness, holiness,
redemption accomplished. This is what He did. So Christ
is able to make the harvest of temporal food abound for us and
to give us what we need in temporal things. By nature, we don't have
any storehouses. We think we do. We think we got
some store. We got our little savings account.
We got our little safe somewhere that we put things in, somewhere
in the house. And we think everything's safe there. Then comes still
the whole safe and everything. Christ is the safest safe. He's
the storehouse. God's fed us abundantly from
His abundant storehouse of grace. Like we saw Joseph having all
the rule over all the storehouses and providing for his people.
Christ is that one who has the command of the storehouse. And
of His abundance have we received grace for grace. He just has
abundant store of grace for His people. So He's going to provide
food for His people. Alright? So we can keep our full
attention focused on Christ the Bread from Heaven and not be
carried away with wondering, where am I going to get bread?
Every crumb that falls from the Master's table, He'll drop it
right where we need. Every door that needs to be opened
so we can have the job we need to provide, He'll do it. He'll
do it. He'll open that door. Now Christ
is not recommending we don't work. You know that. He said,
in 1 Thessalonians, he said, if a man won't work, he don't
eat. God doesn't operate like our government operates. If a
man won't work, he don't eat. He don't eat. But we're here
to provide for one another and help one another. God's people
do help one another. We do provide for one another.
But he said, but don't get carried away with those things and think
everything's on your shoulder, because it's not. It's not. Secondly,
consider Our stature. Consider our stature. Verse 25.
Which of you, with taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? Who here can, by taking thought,
by worry, by using every bit of the strength that you have,
who here can add just one measure to his body? at all. Who can make himself taller?
Who can preserve his health? Who can prevent himself from
getting sick? Who can make himself well if he gets sick? Who, by
all his worry and his doing and his striving, can add one minute
to his life? God has set some limits. He sets
some bounds. And He says, this is it. And if you don't have strength
to do those things, You can't do them. They just know you can't
do these things. But Christ, He's the one who
teaches us inwardly and grows us in grace and knowledge of
Him and grows that inward man so that one day when He takes
us out of this life and takes this body of death off of us,
we're going to come into the fullness of the stature of Christ.
We're going to be conformed to His image in glory. He can do
that. We can't do that. But now, if
we can't even do these things for our body, for our earthly
body, he says here, these are matters of least difficulty.
They're the least, he said, the least difficulty for him to do.
And he says, if you then be not able to do that which is least,
why take you thought for the rest? Why think you're going
to be able to do anything else? He's not saying we shouldn't
take care of our bodies. He's not saying we shouldn't
eat good food and exercise and things like that. But don't put
the health of your body and the well-being of your fleshly body
and the nourishment of your fleshly body before your soul, before
the inward man, before the spiritual man. Feed the inner man first. Feed the inner man most. Feed
the inner man more than the outward man. We can't do this if we're
worried over these other things. We can't do this if we're running
around all in a huff and worried that where we're going to eat,
what we're going to drink, what we're going to put on and all
these things. If we depend entirely upon God to do that which is
least, we've got to depend upon God to do the rest. Everything. Everything. If we trust God,
we can spend less time worrying about our needs. If we trust
God, we can focus our hearts on Christ and His Word and His
Gospel, on walking in communion with Him, and less time on these
bodies. You know where your body's going
to end up? In a casket, in a hole in the ground. That's where mine's
going to end up. It's going to end up, or burned
up, or it's going to go back to the dust. and we pamper these
bodies and we care for these bodies and we take care for these
bodies as if this is the end all be all of who we are. There's
something more important than this body. It's our soul. It's
the spiritual man. It's the inward man. There's
a soul that's going to live forever somewhere. It's going to spend
eternity somewhere. Either with God or separated
in the outer darkness where there's wailing and gnashing of teeth,
but we're going to spend eternity somewhere. Which one are we giving
our time and our attention and our focus to feed? The inward
man or the outward man? And then consider our clothing,
our raiment. Verse 27, he says, consider the
lilies, how they grow. They toil not, they spin not,
and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. We're like the flower. The scripture
says all flesh is grass. That's what it says. We're like
the flower. How do the flowers grow? They
toil not and they spin not. The flower doesn't anxiously
labor and fret. It's not running about all in
a tizzy, spinning and trying to figure out how it's going
to grow. It doesn't do that. It's planted. It's fixed. It
can't move. It can't do anything. There it
is. Planted in the earth. The flower's beauty is not man-made. It's not of itself. It's not
manufactured of itself. And yet It's more beautiful,
more arrayed than Solomon was with all his gold and his silver
and his ornaments and all his man-made raiment. It's more beautiful
than all that. Just one, he said. Solomon wasn't
arrayed like even one of these wildflowers that God has arrayed. Now, if we look at the wildflower
and we watch the wildflower, we're going to find out what
Christ's point is in this illustration. You know what the flower does
first thing in the morning? First thing in the morning, this
is how it gets God's beauty. First thing in the morning, it's
leaning toward the sun as it's rising. And at midday, it's opened
up, soaking up all the rays of God's sun. And in the evening,
it's pointed to the west and it's trying to get every last
ray of God's sun it can get before night falls. Do you hear what
Christ is saying? He says, if then God so clothed
the grass, if God after this manner clothed the grass, which
is today in the field and tomorrow is cast in the oven, how much
more will He clothe ye? O you, O ye of little faith,
if you'd be arrayed in true beauty, if you want to be truly adorned,
spend every waking hour looking less toward the gold and the
silver and the clothes and the spinning and the fixing up that
we do by our hands. and spend every waking hour looking
to God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He will array you
in beauty that excels any beauty that can be had by any other
adorning whatsoever. Look over at 1 Peter 3, chapter
3. 1 Peter 3.3, who's adorning? Let it not be the outward adorning
of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel. He's not forbidding those things,
you know that. He's not telling you to go back
to the 16th century. Verse 4, but here's what he's
saying, but let it be the hidden man of the heart. in that which
is not corruptible, like silver and gold, even the ornament of
a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great
price." You see there, this is great price. This is incorruptible.
This is the adorning of God the Spirit in the inward man. This
is what he's saying. Seek to be adorned inwardly,
in spirit, in meekness, in that adorning God gives in the heart.
All right, fourthly, back in our text, Luke 12, And He says, don't seek these
earthly things, because when you do that, you're being like
the world. Look at this, verse 29. Seek not ye what ye shall
eat or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind, because
all these things do the nations of the world seek after. And
your Father knoweth that you have need of these things. The
worldly man lives to eat and to drink, and his mind's full
of doubts and worries only about earthly things. That's all he's
concerned about. That's his life. That's his life. But God our
Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
and He separated us from the world. And He did it that we
should behold Him. That means not like the world. Separate from the world. And
Christ came and He redeemed us from all iniquity, purging us
to take us out from the chains and the yokes and the bondage
of flesh that just minds fleshly things. And God the Holy Spirit
has regenerated us in the new birth and sanctified us and purged
our conscience from these dead works that are worthless and
just minding the things of the flesh. So He's made us holy. He separated us from those things.
You have a Father in heaven, believer. a Father in heaven
who has all power in heaven and in earth and in all deep places
to do whatsoever pleases Him to provide our every need. And so your Father knows you
have need of these things. Can you imagine Wouldn't it be
an embarrassment to you men if our children went running through
our neighborhood like a chicken with their head cut off, crying
out, and telling all the neighbors that, oh, my father, I don't
have anything to wear, and I don't have anything to eat, and nothing
to drink, and no roof over my head. I'm just worried. Could
you please help me? Wouldn't that embarrass you?
You'd think, boy. Well, the Lord's saying here,
your Father knows you have need of these things. Don't go out
in this world acting like a buffoon, like you don't have a heavenly
Father. That's what He's saying. We got a Father, and He's going
to provide everything we need. We don't go around seeking what
we'll eat and what we'll drink and be in a doubtful mind like
the world does. But rather, look here, verse
31, but rather, seek ye the kingdom of God. Matthew said, seek first
the kingdom of God. And all these things shall be
added to you, not because you seek Him first, but seek Him
first, knowing, resting, assured, that all these things shall be
added to you." In everything the Master has said, this is
the point. This is it. Have your mind set preeminently
on Christ and on His brethren. That's what it is to seek the
Kingdom of God. It's to seek the King of the Kingdom, and
it's to seek the citizens who make up the Kingdom. That is,
Christ the King and our brethren who make up the kingdom. That's
what it is to seek first the kingdom of God, rather than coveting
earthly things for ourselves. And as you do, know that God,
our Father, shall provide all things that we need. Verse 32,
he says, fear not, little flock. It's your Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. We're a little flock, but we
got a mighty shepherd. A mighty shepherd. Let me read
Isaiah 40. Verse 11, He says, He shall feed
His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead
those that are with young. That's His promise. And this
is the same one in the next verse says, Who's measured the waters
in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span,
and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed
the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance. This
is our Savior. Christ Jesus, God who has all
power, this is Him. So fear not, little flock. And
He says, it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
That man that we read about in the very beginning of this, who
said he was so worried and concerned because it wasn't his father's
good pleasure to give him the inheritance. His father gave
it to his other brother. And he was all trouble because
his brother wasn't willing to divide the inheritance with him.
But that's not so with our Father. Our Father gave all into the
hand of His Son, Christ Jesus, and it was His good pleasure
for the Son to divide it with those that He gave to the Son.
And so the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in the hand of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's why. He says, therefore,
in Isaiah 53, 12, I will divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong. We're strong
when we have no strength at all. We're strong when he's our complete
strength only. And he said, and I'm going to
divide the spoil with those who totally believe me. That's what
he said. Because he was numbered with
the transgressors, he was numbered with us. And he bared the sin
of many, he put away the sin of many. Not everybody, but his
people he did. And he made intercession for
the transgressors. Romans 8.15 says, and so you've
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. He says, fear
not. You haven't received the spirit of bondage again to fear,
but you received the spirit of adoption. Whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. We've received the spirit that
declares to us we're sons of God. And he says, and the spirit
itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. And if we're children, then heirs, heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ. And our text in Ephesians we've
been looking at says, and in Christ we obtained this inheritance
because we were predestinated according to the purpose of him
who works all things after the counsel of his own will. He said,
fear not little flock, it's your father's good will, it's his
good pleasure to give you the kingdom. This is his will. Do
we believe God? You believe God? Are we like
the rich young ruler? You know what the rich young
ruler's problem was? He had two problems. He was covetous. That
was his problem. He was covetous of two kinds
of riches. He was covetous of Christ's glory. His law keeping. He came by his law keeping. And
he said, I've kept it from my youth up. I've been storing this
up from my youth up. I've been saving and saving all
this righteousness from my youth up. Keeping the commandments.
Christ is the one by whom His people are made righteous. He's
the only one that's fulfilled the law. And we fulfill it through
faith in Him only. He was seeking, coveting Christ's
glory. And by that, He broke the whole
law of God. And the other thing He was coveting
after was His earthly riches. He had a lot of earthly riches.
And He loved those more than He did Christ's brethren. And
so when Christ told him to sell everything and follow Him, he
couldn't do it because he loved his righteousness more than Christ,
our righteousness. And he couldn't part with his
riches because he loved his riches more than Christ's brethren.
Now, but if we believe Christ, we really believe Christ, we'll
love our brethren. And this is what we'll do. Look
at verse 33. This is what he told the rich
young ruler, close to it. Sell that you have and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which
wax not old. A treasure in the heavens that
faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Our
treasure, the believer's treasure in heaven is Christ. That's where
our heart is. And we have a treasure in earth.
Our treasure in earth is our brethren. It's those that Christ
laid down his life for and redeemed. That's our treasure. Christ and
our brethren. Therefore, believing Christ has
provided all our righteousness and that he'll provide all our
lesser needs, we freely, cheerfully give of ourselves to help our
brethren because we love them. Number one, to provide the gospel.
That's our chief need. our chief need and the chief
need of our brethren. Number two, every temporal need
they need, we'll help them with that too. And this is one of
the ways that the Lord provides these things for us. You think
about it. He's always got one of His saints
or a group of His saints who believe Him. and have the substance
He's put in their hands so that they believe they're not going
to be a loser for giving it away. And so they trust Him. So that
when there's a needy brother, a needy sister, they're there
to provide it for them. And by that, when we're that
one who's doubting and in need and we're just clouded and we
can't see Christ, He shows us, I'm providing for you. And He
strengthens our faith once again to Him to see He really is God
who keeps His Word and does what He says He'll do. And so He strengthens
us, and He gives us substance, and we get back on our feet.
And now, the next time, it's that brother that helped us out
before, and now he's in need, and he's doubting, and he's down,
and he can't look up because he thinks everything's falling
apart. And then Christ uses us to provide
for him. Do you see how that faith and
love are united together in the Lord Jesus Christ? This is His
commandment. that we believe on the name of
his son Jesus Christ. There's all our righteousness.
There's the full, perfect keeping of the law. There's the perfection
of holiness. There's our full acceptance to
enter into God's presence. Faith in Christ. Christ alone. And he says, and love one another
as he gave us commandment. And that's what those who believe
Christ do. It's not even a second thought
to them to do it because they know Christ has provided everything
for us. He's going to provide everything.
Look at 1 Timothy 6.17, and I want to give you two more Scriptures
and I'm done. 1 Timothy 6.17. Charge them that are rich in
this world, that they be not, number one,
high-minded. Don't be high-minded in self-righteousness,
thinking we have kept God's law, done anything to make ourselves
acceptable to God. Number two, nor trust in uncertain
riches. That's right. But in the living
God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, and charge them
that they do good and that they be rich in good works, ready
to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves
a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay
hold on eternal life." Is Paul saying, is Christ saying that
we can purchase eternal life? That if we just give away enough
we can purchase eternal life? No, he said if you believe Christ
is your eternal life, You'll be a cheerful giver. That's what
he's saying. You'll freely give because you
know where your treasure is. It's in heaven. It can't be exhausted. It can't be exhausted. I know
where the false religions use this and abuse this, but it's
true. You can't out give God. That's just true. You can't do
it. He said in the Old Testament, challenge me. He said, try it. That's what he said. Prove me
and see. Prove me, he said. Look at verse 35. I'm going to
skip down to verse 37. This is what I want to end with.
We have an inheritance, brethren, that surpasses in value all the
riches of this world combined. Verse 37. He said, Blessed are
those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching.
Verily I say unto you, He'll gird Himself and make them sit
down to meet, and He'll come forth and He'll serve them. That's going to happen. That's
going to happen with Christ. We're going to sit at His table
in His kingdom, and He's going to serve us. That's right. Simply put, it means we're going
to have everlasting life and eternal communion with God our
Savior. Indeed, the sufferings of this
world are nothing in comparison to that glory that we're going
to have with Him. So here's what we do, brethren.
This is what it is to seek first the kingdom of God. Seek Christ
first. He's the true bread. Seek Christ
first, He's our raiment of righteousness. Seek Christ first, the beauty
that He adorns us with is better than any man-made adornment,
any. Seek the good of those in need,
especially those brethren that He's redeemed, the household
of God. That's what it is to seek first the Kingdom of God.
And everything else that you have need of, No. Know this,
while you're seeking Him first and His people first. No. He'll
provide everything else. It's done. It's done. He will
provide. And I pray the Spirit of God
will make this word of our Redeemer, that Christ Himself spoke, that
He'll make it effectual in our hearts to believe Him and to
seek Him first. Amen.