Okay, let's turn together in
our Bibles to Proverbs chapter 13. Proverbs chapter 13. Now our subject this morning
is one that's very, very important. It's something that will be beneficial
for everybody to hear. We've got a lot of young people
in this congregation and you're what got me thinking of this
and thinking about this. But this will be just as beneficial
and maybe even more for the older people here to you parents. I want to give everybody here
two words. I want to say two words to you. And I want you to be honest with
yourself. And you think about this within
yourself. What is it of these two words? What is it that you think is
most profitable to you? Which of these two words do you
most have your heart set on? Riches or righteousness? Riches or righteousness? Now,
riches include all gains, all possessions. It includes all
the things we get in this world, temporal things by our hands.
It can be the carnal, outward stuff, possessions and things
like that. It can be honors. It can be position. It can be even self-righteous
works that we think we've done in religion. And two, remember
this, you don't have to be a tycoon to have your heart set on riches.
You can live below the poverty line and be rich and have your
heart set on riches. It doesn't have to be a bunch
of riches. You can have your heart set on
riches. Riches are righteousness. That's our subject this morning.
Riches are righteousness. Look at verse 8 here in the ransom of a man's life are
his riches." Now you think about that. The ransom of a man's life
are his riches. But the poor heareth not rebuke. Now our young people have a life
ahead of you here and you You have a lot to be thinking about
and what you're going to do and education and things like that. But what is it that sounds better
to you? Riches or righteousness? When
you hear these words here about the ransom of a man's life or
his riches, but the poor heareth not rebuke. What sounds better
to you? Being rich or being poor? being rich or being poor. This
world teaches us to go after riches. That's what the world
teaches us. Every commercial, every music
video, every television show is focusing our attention on
carnal, materialistic things, temporary things. Tradition teaches
us this. We hear about tradition and our
mind is that real profit comes in devoting ourselves in pursuit
of things Which if we read the word of God, he tells us plainly
will not profit us just will not profit us at all For most
it's a normal mindset today that when you start out when a young
person comes out of college You're going to come out of college
and you're going to start out your life with a mountain of
debt a Mountain of debt that it cost you to get that college
degree And that's, it's almost abnormal to think otherwise,
to think of trying to do it in a way where you don't come out
with a mountain of debt. But the point I'm trying to make
to you is, but we're willing, because we're so set in the world,
and we're so following up traditions of what is the norm, and oh,
heaven forbid, we don't be normal, as the world calls normal. But
we were willing to pay, invest thousands in college education
for our children. We're willing to invest thousands
in businesses. We're willing to invest thousands
for homes, for cars, for vacations, and whatever else brings comfort
to this flesh. Thousands. Do we invest as much
in the pursuit of everlasting righteousness as we do temporary
riches? Now that slays me. And I think
if we're honest, it'll slay everybody in this room. There's not even a comparison. to the pursuit that we as Americans
in this country give toward pursuing temporary riches in comparison
to everlasting righteousness. Not even a comparison. I wonder,
and you know, and we think about it too, and we get to thinking
about this and hearing this, and I know as I was preparing
it, as I think about it, as I'm saying it, I find myself thinking,
well, how else is a person gonna compete in this world? Well,
the righteous God that holds everyone and everything and is
able to turn the King's heart whithersoever He will. He says
that these things we pursue will destroy us. That's what He says. I wonder how God would bless
us if we trusted Him, believed Him. I mean believed Him so much
that we were willing to invest more in giving our children the
gospel of Christ's righteousness than these other things. We're
talking about God here now. We're talking about God who holds
the waters in the hollow of His hand. Turn over to 1 Timothy chapter
6, just a moment. Will we covet after something
that God says will surely, slowly seduce us away from trusting
Christ? Let me ask you this. Would you
take a crossbow and load it up with an arrow and turn that crossbow
towards you and shoot yourself with it? Would you work from
morning till evening to heap up and save sorrow upon sorrow
upon sorrow upon sorrow. Would we do that? Listen to God's
Word. Listen to this Word right here.
1 Timothy 6. Let me just read up to this verse.
Verse 6, he says, Godliness with contentment is great gain. Great gain. For we brought nothing
into this world. Now how do we get everything
we have? We didn't come into this world with anything. God
brought us into the world. He gave us life and brought us
into the world. How do we get what we have? We brought nothing
into this world. It's certain we can carry nothing
out. And having food and raiment,
food and clothing, let us be there with content. Food and
clothing. Do you find yourself going, well,
we've got to have more than that. Food and clothing, let us therewith
be content. But they that will be rich fall
into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. Now watch this,
this is the point I was making. Would we go after something that's
going to seduce us ever so subtly away from Christ? We load up
a crossbow and shoot ourselves with an arrow. We heap up, heap
up sorrow upon sorrow upon sorrow. Watch this verse. For the love
of money, having our hearts set on money, thinking our securities
in money. For the love of money is the
root of all evil. which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith. They've been seduced away from
the faith, just slowly, ever so slowly. And they loaded up
a crossbow and pierced themselves through with many arrows. with himself through with many
sorrows." Sorrow upon sorrow upon sorrow. That's what he said. Would we be so foolish as doing
that? Are we interested in hearing
and heeding God's Word? Or do we really think our way
is better? We'll come back to this Scripture
here in our Proverbs. But let's go to Proverbs 8. I
want to just show you. I just am amazed sometimes and
how simple the Word of God is and there's so many scriptures
in the Word of God that talk about this. I mean everywhere. Now look at this with me, Proverbs
8. Proverbs 8, look here in verse 18. Riches and honor are with me. Durable riches and righteousness. Riches that don't fade. Durable
riches. Enduring riches. And righteousness. My fruit is better than gold.
Yea, than fine gold. And my revenue than choice silver. Now look at Proverbs 11. Proverbs
11. Now I'm just going to give you
a few of these scriptures. Look at Proverbs 11. Look at verse
4. Riches profit not in the day of wrath."
There's coming a day of wrath. There's coming a day when we're
going to have to face God. And riches profit not in the
day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death. Look at
verse 28 over here in chapter 11. Verse 28. He that trusteth
in his riches shall fall. But the righteous shall flourish
as a branch. Look at Proverbs 13, look at
verse 7. There is that maketh himself
rich, yet hath nothing. There is that maketh himself
poor, yet hath great riches. Yet hath great riches. Now look
at our text, verse 8. The ransom of a man's life are
his riches. Let's just look at this first
part. The ransom of a man's life are his riches. Whatever we think
will ransom our life, that's our riches. Whatever we think
is our security, whatever we think is our true salvation,
whatever we think is going to protect us and keep us, that's
our riches. That's our riches. Now, when
we think riches, temporal things are going to provide us security
and salvation. When we think that, that man
who's looking to his money, he really thinks, literally, if
he was held for ransom in some way, If he was held for ransom,
he's got the money to redeem himself. He's got the money to
pay it. The man who's looking at his
money, he's thinking, well, if I get a disease, I have to go
in the hospital, something like that, I'll have the money to
pay the physician to heal me. He thinks that he's looking at
his money, he thinks, well, the economy is getting bad. And if
famine strikes and we don't have any food, At least I got my riches. I'll be able to buy me something
to eat, pay for my food to preserve me. That's how we think, right?
That's how we all think. That's the natural way of thinking.
That's why we work and save and are not ignorant with our funds
and our money. The man, though, that is looking
to those things for his security, looking to those things and thinking
that's where he's going to be saved and kept, he's not looking
to God. not looking to God. Temporary
riches can only purchase temporary salvation, a temporary ransom,
heal you from a temporary disease, heal you from a temporary famine.
But look over at Psalm 49 and look at verse 6. Psalm 49 and
verse 6. Now don't go to the other extreme
here and think, well, I'm just going to go out and run up everything
I can run up on credit cards. That's doing the same thing.
That's the same thing. Look into stuff. Look at Psalm
49.6. 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." Verse 9 says that he should still live forever and not see
corruption. Back at verse 8 it says, "...for
the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth forever."
Down at verse 12 he says, "...nevertheless, man being in honor abideth not,
he's like the beast that perished, This their way is their folly,
and yet those who come right behind them approve their sayings
and say, this is the best way to go. This is the best route
to go. This is what we ought to do. Just one generation after
the next. Lo, this is the man that made
not God his strength. I'm reading from Psalm 52, 7.
This is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted
in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his
wickedness. Now, let's go back and look at
the second part of Proverbs 13.8. It says, but the poor heareth
not rebuke. The poor heareth not rebuke. This man's poor in spirit. This
man is broke, he's bankrupt, he's contrite in spirit. This is his poverty. His poverty
is in knowing in his heart that in his flesh dwells nothing good. Knowing that in this world, there's
nothing that can save him. Knowing that in this world, there's
nothing whereby he can be profited whatsoever. He sees, as Isaiah
saw, that he's undone and perverse and lives in a people that's
the same way. This man's so poor and so bankrupt
and so much in poverty, he has to have God or he's going to
perish. And God's is all. Christ is His
all. He's so poor, Christ is His all. Remember that widow that came
and the Lord said, and she threw in the two mites, and the Lord
said, she's thrown in more than all of these people. You know
that woman, you know why she did that? You know, He said she
threw in everything she had. You know why she did that? That
wasn't her life. Christ was her life. If she didn't
have that, she had Christ. And she trusted Him. She looked
Him. She knew He was providing for
her. She believed Him. He was her life. The more a person
sees they have Christ as their life, like she did, the more
you're willing to part with things that are not your life. Whatever
it is. It doesn't matter. It's just
not my life. There's no big deal to me. It's not my life. This
poverty makes a man to depend entirely upon the precious redemption
that's been accomplished by Christ. He's not looking to, if thieves
take me and rob me and steal me and take control of me in
this life, That's no big deal. I don't have to have money to
ransom myself. I need a redemption that's way
more precious than that. Thieves have robbed me. I've
robbed myself. I fell into sin and despair and
bankrupt in trespasses and sins. I need Christ's precious blood,
not corruptible things as silver and gold. I need the precious
blood of Christ to ransom me. If he's ransomed me and made
me free, I can't ever be brought into bondage again. They might
throw me in prison and throw away the key, but I'm still free. I've been ransomed by Christ's
blood. I got everything. This is poverty that makes a
man depend upon the Lord who healeth thee. The Lord who healeth
thee. If I'm so sick, I can't heal
myself. No amount of money can heal me.
No physician on earth can do anything for me. I'm so, so soul
sick and sin sick. I've got to have Christ the great
physician. This man is so poor and he's
got to have the physician, the great physician. But having the
great physician, he knows that he has life eternal. He's been
healed of all his sin sickness, of all his disease. So whatever,
been cured of death, been cured from death. So whatever bodily
disease strikes me, I don't look to money to cure me from that. If I'm not cured from it, I'm
going to be with him. Be with him in eternity. The
point I'm making here, you see, this is a man so poor that he's
got living on Christ the living bread. Christ the living bread. He's got the living bread. He's
got the heavenly bread. He's got the heavenly man. So
that he knows that Christ has promised, my living bread has
promised. I'll never see the righteous
begging bread. I believe Him. I believe Him.
I trust Him. So if I have Him, then these
other things, I can part with them, and they just don't cause
me as much sorrow to part with them. He's one that's got the
greatest riches of all. He might not be sleeping in satin
sheets, and He might not be in a big bed with gold bedposts
and all that, but you know what He can do? He can stretch out
in God's bed and sleep like a baby because He's covered in Christ's
righteousness. And if Christ has got you covered
in His righteousness, He's going to cover you in everything else
you need. He's got you covered. Whatever
it is you need, He's got you covered. He'll take care of it,
whatever it is. And look at this. This is the
best part. Look at that second part of verse 8. But the poor
heareth not rebuke. Look over at James chapter 5.
James chapter 5. And I said to you, these things
can be self-righteous works too. A lot of folks are heaping up
self-righteous works for the Day of Judgment, just like rich
men are heaping up riches for their golden years, so that they'll
have plenty to live on and take their ease. Now look at this. But this man here that's poor,
that's content with food and raiment, He's content with literally
food and raiment that he has in his life. That's good enough.
Just today, if I can eat today and have clothes today, that's
all right. It's all right. I got enough
to worry about today. Enough evil in this day right
here to be trying to look at three or four days ahead and
figure out how am I going to get past that. Just today. That man who went through his
life looking to his wealth, looking to his riches, looking to his
self-righteous works, trying to heap up and heap up and heap
up and save for the last day. It's what God said. Here's the
rebuke he's going to hear from God. His very riches are going
to be a witness against him. James 5.3, he says, your gold
and silver is cankered. That means it's just been sitting
there idle. It's been sitting there heaped up. You've been
saving it. It's idle. Your gold and silver is cankered
and the rest of them shall be a witness against you. What are
they going to say? Go from this world with $10 rather
than having Christ as all your righteousness? And at $10, all
$10 are going to be saying, He was trusting us. He was looking
to us. Go from this world having $10
billion and not having Christ. And all $10 billion are going
to be saying, He trusted in us. He wasn't trusting Christ. They
shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it
were fire. You've heaped treasure together
for the last days. For the last days. Well, this
poor man in spirit who put all his trust in Christ, he won't
ever hear that rebuke from God. He won't ever hear that rebuke
from God. He won't ever hear the rebuke. He won't ever hear
it. He's an heir of God's eternal inheritance. Everything that
belongs to Christ belongs to Him. Everything that belongs
to God belongs to Him. Look at Matthew chapter 5. Some folks hear this and they'll
say, well, that's taking a little bit too far. I wish we could
take it this far. The day you take it this far,
come get me. I'll be behind you. I want to
take it this far. I want to take it this far. To
live today, looking to Christ and being content with Christ
and not worrying about anything else. You get there. You get there. you'll find out
you haven't taken it to extreme. I guarantee you that. We're talking
about, this is God's Word. This is what God has said to
us. God has said this to us. It's Matthew 5, 3. Blessed are
the poor in spirit. That man has got nothing but
Christ. Blessed is that man. Why? Theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. He owns everything. Everything
that God owns, He owns. Everything God owns, He owns.
What is that? 1 Corinthians 3. Look at 1 Corinthians
3. This is what you have, believer.
Listen to this now. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 21. Let no man glory in men. Don't praise men, don't praise
riches, don't praise any strength of man whatsoever. There's none
in man. No strength in man, period. For all things are yours, whether
Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or
things present or things to come. are yours, and ye are Christ's,
and Christ is God's." Oh, take it that far. Take it that far. Take it that far. I'm telling
you, go with it as far as you can go with it. He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How? It's an impossibility. How shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? Now, we've looked
at the rich man and we've looked at the poor man. Now let's talk
about this. Which one's better? Riches which
can ransom you temporarily, then damn you in hell for all eternity,
or enduring riches of Christ that provide both now and forever? Which one? Which one? I was talking
to a man one time, and the man told me that he'd been missing
services on a regular basis. And I was talking to him, and
this man told me this. This was his word. He told me
this. He said, I'm making a lot of money right now. And he said,
and I'm saving everything I can make. And he said, I'm doing
it for this, so that when times get leaner, I can retire And
I can take all this money and everything I've accumulated here
and serve the Lord with it. That's what he told me. He'll
never do it. He will never do it. Never do
it. I was a boy, I used to mow yards. And I had about $500 saved up
in the bank. And I had an old raggedy mower
and old beat up trailer. One day the wheel came off of
it, flew past me down the highway. Everything I had was just a bunch
of junk, you know, but it was my business. I had my own business
and I saved up $500 and I thought, man, if I could just get $1,000,
I can get me one of these big new mowers and I can mow a lot
more yards and I can do a lot better. Well, I kept saving and
kept saving. And by the time I got the $1,000
saved up, with inflation, $1,000 wasn't enough. I needed about
$5,000. And I kept thinking, boy, if
I could just get to that $5,000. And it'll just go on like that
and go on like that and go on like that and go on like that.
If you're not content, with what you have right now, then you
will not be content with more. Ever. Ever. Look over at 2 Corinthians 9.8.
I'm not going to have you turn to many scriptures in the second
hour, but I'm making up for it in this one. 2 Corinthians 9.
2 Corinthians 9. Now I want you
to get this. This is very important. What makes a believer happy?
blessed, cheerful, a generous worker in God's house is godliness
with contentment. Whenever God's free, abounding
grace in Christ has freely given you all things that pertain to
eternal life and to godliness, So that you see, I have eternal
life in Christ. And you're persuaded that God
has made you godly in Christ Jesus the Lord. You'll have contentment. Contentment. And this godliness
with contentment is to be persuaded of this thing right here. 2 Corinthians
9 verse 8. I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians 9 verse
8. Yeah, that's right. God is able,
God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that ye always,
always, having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every
good work. Now you talk about somebody taking
it to extremes. You talk about, you think I'm
taking it too far. Look at all the all's and all
the every's and all the extremes that Paul just took it to right
there. The Spirit of God speaking here, God is able to make all
grace abound toward you. That ye always, not just sometimes,
always having all sufficiency in all things may abound. Not just to some good works,
to every good work. That's taking it as far as you
can take it. That's trusting God as much as
you can trust Him. That covetous heart supposes
that gain is godliness, but it's not so. Godliness with contentment
is great gain. It's great gain. Tell you about
Mr. Living Good. We used to go down
the road, me and my grandfather, an old little old truck, old
Ford truck that he had for 20 years, fishing poles hanging
out the window. We'd ride along, we'd pass by
a big old mansion up on a hill, you know, and he'd say, boy,
there's Mr. Livingood right there. That's
Mr. Livingood. We'd go down there
and go fishing. He worked. He worked. He pastored
a church for 30 years, but he worked, too. And I'd go down
there and he'd be out there in his garden, raising a big garden,
and he wasn't doing it just for fun. He was raising it to eat
off of, to live off of. giving to the church, providing
for the church, preaching to the church, carrying fruits and
vegetables to the church. Every time we'd go by that big
old mansion, he'd say, there's Mr. Living Good right there. His son told me, Tell you what
the problem with him was, he lived his whole life trying to
avoid prosperity. His son that's living in his
bedroom in the back of the house that belonged to that man. He could spend his whole life
trying to live, avoid prosperity. He had the durable riches of
Christ. He was Mr. Living Good. He was
Mr. Living Good. A little that a
righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. Look at Matthew chapter 6. We'll
close with this. Matthew chapter 6. Okay, stop
taking it too far. Let's just listen to Christ speak.
Matthew chapter 6, verse 24. No man can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and
love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the
other. Cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore, I say unto you, take
no thought for your life. Well, that's taking it too far. Now, this is the master speaking.
Take no thought for your life. what you shall eat or what you
shall drink, nor yet for your body what you should put on.
Is not the life more than meat in the body than raiment? Behold
the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap,
nor gather in the barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you, by taking
thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? Why take ye thought
for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. They toil not, neither do they
spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so
clothed the grass of the field, which today he is, and tomorrow
is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you,
O ye of little faith? Lord, help me to realize that.
He's talking to me. He's talking to me. Therefore,
take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly
Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. But
seek ye first the kingdom of God. and his righteousness, and
all those things shall be added unto you. Take no thought for
tomorrow, for tomorrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto day is the worries
and the evils that thereof." How do we get this righteousness?
Sounds like I better seek this right, how do I get it? I bet
just about everybody here can at least give a general blueprint,
have some idea of how to get temporal riches. Do you know
how to get righteousness? Do you know how to get this righteousness?
You're giving it that much thought, that much diligence to know how
to get this righteousness. Righteousness is the Lord our
righteousness. Righteousness is to be made the
righteousness of God in the person of Jesus Christ by his finished
work. Righteousness is to have Him
formed in the heart, where your heart's set on Him. To have Him
formed in the heart so that you have a new and living union with
Him. Righteousness is to be free. It's free to all. It doesn't
cost anything. You don't have to pay a dime.
It's free. And it comes by resting. By ceasing to worry, and ceasing
to work, and ceasing to try to endeavor to save ourselves, it
comes by resting. The best thing in the world that
God has to give us, not to cost us a dime, to live in Him is
free. This is the pearl of great price.
You have this pearl of great price and you're rich. And he
told Mary, when she was sitting there at his feet, he looked
around to Martha, He told Martha she was worried and covered about
and what happens when that happens is you start complaining about
somebody else because you don't feel like they're pulling their
load. You don't feel like they're pulling their part. That's what
happened. She felt like Mary wasn't doing her part. All Mary
was doing after all was sitting at the feet of the Savior. And
he turned around to Martha, and he said, Martha, she has desired
that good thing, that good part. And this is the one thing needful,
the one thing needful, Christ, the Lord, our righteousness.
Which one do you want to go after, righteousness or riches? Go after riches. You'll end up
poor. go after righteousness, you'll
end up rich. Amen.