Let's be turning to Luke chapter
12. Luke 12. Our Lord here receives an ignorant
request that a man asked of the Lord to speak to his brother,
to speak to his brother and to have him part earthly things
with him. to give him earthly things. This
man was seeking the substance of the earth and thought little
or nothing of the true treasure, the substance of heaven, which
is the Lord. Now as we get into this, look
at verse 20. You'll notice there in 1220 that
God said unto This is in the parable of the
rich man, and he said to that rich man, thou fool, thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee, then whose
shall those things be which thou hast provided, that substance
you gathered. But that word thou fool is the
exact word that was used to describe the self-righteous Pharisees. That's exactly what he called
the Pharisees when he said, ye fools. He fools. Did not he which
created that which is without create that which is within also? Isn't it our hearts that are
dark and filthy and sinful? That's where all manner of sin
comes from, is from our hearts. And that's where adulteries are,
and fornications, and murders, and strifes, and wicked works,
is from this heart. And so whatever differences these
men thought that they had from one another, there was no difference
at all when it all came down to it. The Pharisees, they were
trusting their outward form of religion. They were trusting
that if they cleaned the outside, that the inside was clean also. That that would just take care
of itself. And the rich man trusted in his
worthy substance. One loved the praise, coveted
the praise of men, the other coveted ease and comfort and
to provide for himself. And both walks, both ways, both
things that they did, either one brought them into death,
brought them into eternal death and ruin. They had nothing when
all was said and done. Whatever they had for a little
time in the world gave them nothing for eternity. And 80 years here
is nothing at all compared to an eternity. and eternity, and
our Lord is turning us from the dead things of this world to
eternal things. To understand that our days are
numbered, our days are fixed in Him, and we're gonna stand
before Him. And we need what He provides
for those that He stirs up and causes them to ask Him. It's
His manifestation of His grace for them, that He show us our
sin and show us our need in the sufficiency of Christ the Savior. And so that's what our Lord does.
He gives this discourse here. He takes what this man asked
for and uses it to declare to us the one thing needful, that
we be rich, not for ourselves in this world, but that we be
rich toward God. And to be rich toward God is
Christ. It's to have Christ. He's the
riches of God. He's the substance we need. He's
the one thing needful. So first, we see that this natural
man's focus was entirely misplaced. He was so taken up with carnal
things. His only interest was on the
things of this world. And so let's read verse 13. This
is our Lord. He's speaking to this people
here, revealing to them the truth, revealing to them the thing most
needful. And one of the company said unto
him, Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance
with me. How sad it is that this man was
hearing the Lord of glory. This man was hearing the Lord
himself. never a finer preacher, never
a more able preacher than the Lord of Glory himself. And all
this man could, this man wasn't moved, all he could think of
was earthly things. All he can think of was an earthly
inheritance. And it brings to mind just how
often our mind is set on earthly things. We're full of cares.
and worries and desires in this world. And the Lord is making
us to see that our focus is so taken up with the things of this
world, and this world is passing away. It's passing away. Firstly, we see, he says, speak
to my brother. Speak to my brother. He needs
to hear this. He needs to hear from you. And
this man is saying, I have no comfort. Don't speak to me. But
that's the one thing we need. Lord, speak to my heart. And
if our focus is taken up on so-and-so needs to hear this, what are
we missing? What am I missing? Lord, speak to my heart. Teach
me. I have need of hearing you, Lord. And this account shows that we're
the ones that need to hear it. Let us hear each man, every man,
every woman for themselves, Lord. Make me to hear it. make me to
confess Christ, give me an understanding, give me a heart, open my ear,
Lord, that I would hear Christ speaking. Because I'm so taken
up with the cares of the world that I dismiss things all the
time and have my focus misplaced. And then secondly, he's so desirous
of an earthly inheritance that he doesn't even know him who
had just said that he's the one that goes into the strong man's
house, binds the strong man, takes the spoils out, takes the
precious things out of that house, and divides the spoils with his
people, with the strong, that he's made strong. If this man
wants an inheritance, why don't you look to him who freely gives
the inheritance of God, eternal life, and all the riches of God
to his people. When he ascended up on high,
it says that he led captivity captive. He took all the captives
out of the strongman's house and gave gifts unto men. You want an inheritance? Don't
look to the vain, earthly things here. Look to Christ, who freely
gives the riches of God, who freely gives the everlasting,
eternal inheritance to God's people. He gives it. But this man, he's so focused
on the riches of this world rather than the world to come. And for all we know, he was made
a partaker of neither, neither one. Sometimes people do receive
riches and wealth. Sometimes people do have power
and influence. But it's God that gives it as
he will, as he purposes. Just be sure that you're not
so focused on what another has that you have nothing in Christ
which is freely given to the sinner, the bankrupt, poor, needy
sinner who's made to see their need and cries out to the Lord
for his mercy and salvation. We're given an example of Moses
in the scriptures. In Hebrews chapter 11, that chapter
of faith, were told to consider him, Moses, who, by faith, Moses,
when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. He had great opportunities. He
had an abundance of wealth in earthly things. And he said,
this isn't profitable. This isn't lasting. I don't want
the wealth of this kingdom He chose instead to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. It's just a reminder to us that
hardships and difficulties are not all bad. In fact, they're
very good for us. They're very good for us. They
scrape and tear and pull away this flesh, in a manner of speaking. They strip us of vain confidences. They bring us low. They put us
on our knees. They cause us to cry out and
to pray to God. And that's not a bad thing. That's
a good place to be, at the throne of God, at His feet, confessing,
Lord, help me. Save me, have mercy on me, Lord. It's good to be brought to see
how weak we are and how utterly dependent we are on God. It's for our good to be made
poor in self. And then we're told Christ's
response to this man in Luke 12, 14. He said unto him, man,
Who made me a judge or a divider over you? And that's quite a
rebuttal, a rebuke to this man because Christ received everyone
who came to him for mercy. We don't read one time where
the Lord turned a needy sinner away. Whether they were asking
for their own healing, usually they were asking for the healing
of a loved one, but everyone who came to Christ seeking mercy
found mercy. This man wasn't seeking mercy.
This man's request, his aim, was to consume it upon his lusts. And that's why he didn't receive
it. That's what James tells us, right? James said, ye ask and
receive not, because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your
lusts. You just want to be free of this
thorn. You want to be free of this trial.
You want to be free of this difficulty so that you can just live your
life freely to the fullness of your lusts, to consume it upon
your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God. And again, we see how
the Lord graciously then gives to his people what they have
need of, even if that's a weakening thing, something to bring us
low in self, lest we love the world and think little of him. Instead, he makes us to think
a lot of him and to think of him often and to remind us repeatedly
how weak we are and how insufficient we are and how dependent we are
on him for our good. Because this is but a mere 80
years or something like that of suffering compared to an eternity
of rest and peace in him abundantly, life more abundantly. in him. And it begins now for the child
of God who's made to see that he's all. We can rejoice in joy
in him right now, even in the midst of suffering, when our
focus is not on what my flesh wants, but what I need and what
he's provided and providing and keeping me in and turning me
from. Our Lord warns his hearers of
the danger of covetousness, of coveting the things of this world,
of setting our focus on things of this world. He tells us that
no man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise
the other. He cannot serve God and Mammon."
You can't do it. Now, I know that we convince
ourselves we can do it. We tell God, we make promises,
but I'm confident that Christ knows better. He knows what's
in the heart of man. He knows exactly what we would
do. And so he provides for his people,
takes his people from that, and gives us just what we need to
keep us ever looking to him. And so the Holy Spirit for example,
records this, gives us this passage to show us that there are much
greater riches to be had than the riches, so-called, of this
world. Verse 15, and he said unto them,
He's speaking to them, he's continuing his dialogue now and he says,
take heed and beware of covetousness for a man's life consisteth not
in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And what
he's saying there is don't measure your godliness by your substance
and by the things of earth. by the friends you have, by the
size of the congregation, or the lack thereof. Don't measure
yourself by these things. This is what the world looks
at. Trust Him. Be faithful to Him. Don't judge
whether you're godly by the abundance of your house and the things
that you own and whatnot, or the lack thereof, because they're
not an indicator whether God loves you or not. He provides
as He will, and He gives grace to go with that abundance or
lack thereof to His people as He sees fit, as He gives it. This man, you know, oh, well,
he says, you know, blessed be he poor for yours is the kingdom
of God. And I know that speaking of spiritual
things, But there is a sense in which we learn the meaning
of that, the depth of that. Paul said, did not God choose
the weak things and base things of the earth? There's a few noble. There's a few wealthy, as he
purposes. But the majority, no, they don't
have much. They don't have much. But that's
OK. These are God's people. And you're
ministering to God's people. This man wanted. what God had
given to his brother. And that is the sin of covetousness,
to see what God has given to another and say, I want that. Why don't I have that? How come
he got that? Who were they to get that? Well,
who are you? God gave it to that one and not
to you. Don't set your heart on those
things. He should have set his heart
on things to come, but he could only see the things of this world.
But the Lord teaches us through that patience. Trust him. If he gives it to you or didn't
give it to you, if he gives it to another, trust him. Don't set your heart. Don't be
consumed with worrying about what another has and think, I
want that. I'm going to get that. Just seek
the Lord. Trust him to let it unfold. Look at what Joseph went through.
He suffered greatly and yet saved many people through the suffering
that the Lord gave him. Just wait upon him patiently. So he says, lay to your hearts.
He's teaching us to lay to our hearts that everything that we
see here, he tells us, is going to be burned up with fire. It's
all going away. It's not lasting. This is not
the inheritance of the children of God. This is not the inheritance
of God's children. He tells us, lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves break through and steal. Every time I've had something,
my heart at some point, my mind at some point worries about it.
But if I don't have it, I don't worry about it. The more I have,
the more I worry about it. And so there is a blessing to
have less. There really is. I mean, just
because you have an abundance, ask somebody who has abundance.
They'll tell you. They're worried about a lot of
things. There's all kinds of things that trouble them. And
it's not all that it seems. He says, lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and
where thieves do not break through nor steal. And where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also. And that's it. If your treasure's in heaven,
your heart's set on heavenly things. If your treasure's on
earth, your heart's set on earthly things. It's just so. God's not
mocked. It's just so. It's what it is.
He's teaching us to seek first God's kingdom. If he gives you
something, great. Use it for good. Use it to be
hospitable and helpful to others. But if he's made you poor, there's
nothing wrong with that either. He gives the grace to go with
what he's given to you. Just seek him first, and all
those things that you need will be added to you. Will be added. Paul encouraged the brethren in this
way because we're not immune to it, basically, is what it
comes down to. We are in this body of flesh, and so we're not
immune to those temptations. Paul said that we're dead, and
our life is hid with Christ in God. But when Christ who is our
life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication,
uncleanness, inordinated affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness,
which," he tells us, is idolatry. It's idolatry. And that's what
the Lord's warning us against. This man, he's hearing Christ
preach, He's listening to the prince of peace preach the word
and teach the people, and all he's thinking of is carnal things. And really, that's what the parable
of the sower reveals to us, right? That that seed which was sown
among the weeds, among the thorns, that seed was choked out by the
cares of this world. So being so focused, so worried,
so caught up on what's going on with me and my things, that
the word just gets choked. And so that when we do hear the
word, it's unprofitable to us. Seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ. And know that covetousness
takes on many different forms. Sometimes it's covetousness for
riches and wealth. Sometimes it's covetousness for
the desire of fame and the applause of men, of honor, of power and
influence, of lustful things, of sinful things. It's desiring
those things which God has purposed not to give you. And we're told
Paul also said this, ye know that no whoremonger, nor unclean
person, nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance
in the kingdom of Christ and of God. So don't set your heart
on those things. And when you see it, cry out
to the Lord. Lord, turn me from desiring these
things. Lord, you know my heart. I can't
hide it from you. Turn me from desiring this, and
coveting that, and being idolatrous. I can't change myself. But he's
able. Confess it to him. Confess your
sin to him. And ask him for grace. and trust
Him and wait patiently for it. And every time you're reminded
of your own sin, confess it to Him again and ask Him for grace,
ask Him for help, ask Him to give you a new heart, a new thought,
a new desire, a new focus in Him, in His kingdom. Ask Him. Ask Him. That's what He teaches
us and shows us. Look to Him and trust Him for
it. We try to mask it with religion.
That don't mask. That isn't fooling anybody. It's
still there. Confess it to him and ask him,
Lord, give me a new heart, a new desire that desires the riches
of God rather than the riches of this world, whatever form
they take on. And so to bring this point home
to our hearts, to show us the folly of worthiness, our Lord
gives us a parable. And this parable really teaches
this, that life is very short. Very short. We don't know when
our life is going to end. We don't know if we're going
to make it to 80. We don't know if we're going to make it to
14. Right? Some of us. We don't know how
long we're going to live. We don't know when when it's
going to end. And so, verse 16, our Lord shows
us that we can suddenly be called to the throne of God in an instant. In an instant. In a moment. In verse 16, He spake a parable
unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought
forth plentifully. So this was an industrious man.
This was a man who had some thoughts, and he sowed to those ideas. He put forth effort and labor
for that, and everything started popping. Everything started abundantly
yielding for him, and all his investments were just coming
through. Over here it's coming through, and over there it's
working, and everything's going good. And this man is just bringing
it in, and he's just amazed at how well all his ventures are
doing. But these proved to be a snare
to him. Right? The things, everything
going well in the world ended up proving to be a snare to him.
It snared his heart. It took his focus and put it
on these worldly things. And we're all familiar with it.
We all know when things are going well, it just preoccupies our
mind and consumes us with this world. And this is a pause here,
our Lord's words to us here. Paul was writing to Timothy,
to those who suppose that gain was godliness, that gaining things,
that gaining the things of this world. I say surprise, but it's really
no surprise. But there are Christian sects,
a lot of them, and not just all the ones that you would think.
I mean, I don't feel like naming it. But they look to the gain
that you have as godliness. And Paul was addressing that.
And he said, godliness with contentment is great gain. Whatever you have,
if you're content in it, even if you're in prison, Paul said,
I've learned to be content with being hungry and naked and in
prison or out. Whatever it is, I'm content with
that. For we brought nothing into this
world, and it's certain we can carry nothing out. That's why
when the pharaohs would get buried in a tomb and they stuffed all
that gold and pottery and servants in there with them, it was all
still there. When they opened it up, it was
all there and they took it out because it didn't go with them.
It stays here. And so we go before God and without
Christ, we go before God naked and ashamed. And if you wouldn't
want to be naked here, you don't want to be naked before God and
his throne. And that's the shame. And so
he said, be content with what you have, because they that are
rich, that will be rich, I should say, that will, that set their
heart on it, they fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the
root of all evil, which while some covet it after, they While
some have coveted after, they've erred from the faith and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows. And so it's not all
that we convince ourselves of in the flesh, of coveting for
things that God hasn't given us. We don't know what he's gonna
give us. You young men don't know what
he's gonna give you. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And he'll give you what he's
purposed to give you. You can trust him in that. Trust
him in that. You can pray about that. Lord,
turn my heart to you and your righteousness. And let me not
focus on that, just trust you in it. And at any point in our
lives, we can focus on that. We can ask the Lord, have mercy
on me, save me, give me your righteousness at any point, because
we can always see him more and more. And so verse 17, and he
thought within himself, this is the parable now, this rich
man, saying, what shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits. And so he didn't seek God. He never mentions that he thought,
Lord, what can I do for you? What can I do in the kingdom
here? with these things. How can I fill the storehouses
of the hungry and the needy? No, he thought, what am I going
to do with all this stuff? And he thought within himself.
He was his own wisdom. And he said, verse 18, this will
I do. I will pull down my barns and
build greater. And there will I bestow all my
fruits and my goods. And so this man was great in
his own eyes. What shall I do? This will I
do. This is what I'm going to do,
and it's all earthly, worldly things. Verse 19, I will say
to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.
Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. And what a foolish
thing to say to one's soul, because the soul doesn't feed on earthly,
carnal things. Only the flesh feeds on the things
of this earth, the food of this earth. Only the flesh is clothed
with the clothing of this earth. The soul? No. The soul doesn't
feed on earthly bread and drink earthly drinks and clothe itself
with earthly clothing. That's not what the soul needs. And this man thinks that this
is godliness. This is his righteousness. This is his acceptance. with
God. And so, look at verse 20 and
21, 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. And so the rich man,
in this parable, died naked and empty and spiritually bankrupt,
having nothing, nothing with which to stand before God clothed
and accepted of Him. And that's not the place that
any of us should want to be in, not to trade That hope for the
things of this world and coveting this world is a foolish choice. That's why he said, thou fool,
that's a foolish choice. 50 years, 80 years, 10 years,
all of it, it's so short, even 100 years, it's so short compared
to eternity and it doesn't last. It's not lasting, and then we
stand before God naked and without anything. And so the question
here in this context is what is it to be rich toward God?
What is it to be rich toward God? Well, this rich man coveted
what? The riches of this earth. the
wealth of this earth, the abundance of this earth. Well then, the
riches, being rich toward God is to covet what? The blessings
of God. I don't want the blessings of
this earth, I want the blessings of God. And what is the blessing
of God? It's Christ. It's all that Christ
Jesus gives to his child. It's all that Christ has done
to wash us of our sins, to clothe us with his righteousness. He
said, I prepared a place for you in heaven. He described it
as a mansion. What that is, I don't know, but
I'm content with it. I want to be there. That's my
inheritance. That's my hope. Not these things,
Lord, keep me there. Lord, give me that heart to desire
you to labor in your kingdom. Because you said, this is my
beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. Hear him. You want to be rich toward God?
Look to Christ. come to Christ for His rest,
for His peace, for His righteousness, to teach you, to lead you, to
correct you, to keep you. He's everything we need to stand
before God, rich and accepted of Him in the abundance of the
things of God. He's the one that makes us a
partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. It's all
by Him. He willingly divides the inheritance
with all his people. And so Christ provides everything
that we need, brethren. And you need fruit, you need
abundance of fruit. He's the one that works it in
his people. He's the one that brings it forth
in us. We seek him first. Therefore,
our Lord said, take no thought saying, What shall we eat? or
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 ye have need of all these things. You know, I can look
as I examine my life. I see how the Lord has provided
everything that I've needed. He knows what I need. He knows
everything about me and he's given me just what I need. And
it's great. I'm very thankful for what he's
given to me. He's given me abundance above
what I need, certainly above what I deserve. He's given me
everything. And so he says, seek ye first. This is Matthew 6.33. Seek ye
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these
things that you need, that we convince ourselves we need and
focus on. He says, all those things your
Heavenly Father knows and he'll give them to you, such as you
need in his kingdom. And so, to be rich toward God
is to be found in Christ. I don't know how else to say
it, it's Christ. He is the riches of God and he's
the one who makes his people rich toward God. He's the one
that teaches us to love our brethren, to love him, to be thankful and
content in what he's done for us. So I pray that he make you
rich in Christ and make you to covet him and his blessings,
brethren. Amen.