All right, Luke 12 verses 13
through 15. One of the company said unto
him, our Lord, Master, speak to my brother that he divide
the inheritance with me. And our Lord said unto him, Man,
who made me a judge or divider over you? And he said unto them,
his disciples, mainly, take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not
in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Beware of
covetousness. And then our Lord gave the parable
of the rich materialistic fool. Well, one of the company, whoever
that was, I don't think it was one of his immediate disciples,
but someone said to him, Master, talk to my brother, he's going
to cheat me out of my inheritance. After all that our Lord said,
words of life, So much just vital truth. This man was concerned
about his inheritance. Then what inheritance are you
concerned about? Am I concerned about? There are
two types of inheritance. One is an earthly one and the
other is a heavenly one. What inheritance? Am I really
interested in him? And whichever it is, it reveals
the true state of our heart for where your treasure is. That's
where your heart is. This is a serious subject, isn't
it? Job, I want to be like Job. I hope I'm like Job. But Job
had a great deal of earthly treasures, didn't he? And the Lord gave
them to him, and he knew that. And the Lord took it all away. And what did Job say? The Lord
gave, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
He said, I was naked when I came here, and I'll be naked when
I return. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He loaned it to
him, and he took it away. I want to be like that, don't
you? That's a man who knows the Lord and loves the Lord, whose
life is not in things. Abraham and Lot. Abraham was
very rich in houses and land, gold and silver. He was a very
rich man. And Lot owed everything to Abraham. Lot was his nephew. And Abraham took him under his
wing and everything Lot had, he owed it to Abraham. And there
became strife because they had so much, so many things. And
isn't that the cause of most of our strife and worry and troubles
and marital problems and things? Absolutely. And there was strife
between them. And Abraham said to Lot, let
there be no strife between us, we'd be brethren. He said, Lot,
whatever you want, you take it. I'll take the rest. Remember
that? You take whatever you want and I'll take the rest. Now who
knew the Lord? Which one of them knew the Lord?
In Abraham it says, dwelled in the mountains with the Lord.
And Lot chose Sodom. and the Sodomites. That's the
word. And it remained to be seen if
Lot knew the Lord at all until the very end. He seemed as one
that mocked because his whole life was in Sodom with the Sodomites
and nobody could tell any difference in it. Until finally the Lord
had great mercy on him and laid hold of him and brought him out
and said, this is not your place. I'm destroying this place. And Abraham, remember Abraham
asked the Lord, Lord, what will you give me? He said, I'll give
you me. I'm your reward. Where your treasure
is, that's where your heart is. He that hath the Son hath life. A man's life consists not in
the things which he possesses, but in the Lord that possesses
him. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath real faith, a real need for the Son, a real love
for the Son, a real communion, a real relationship with the
Lord Jesus Christ hath life. Others are mere pretenders. Listen to David. David, remember
David in Psalm 37 was envious at the prosperity of the wicked.
In Psalm 73, the same thing, he was envious. He said, but
I went into the sanctuary with my brethren. And he said, I was
so ignorant, I was such a fool to be envious of these perishing
things of clay. He said, whom have I in heaven
but thee? And there's none on earth I desire
beside thee. Now that man knows the Lord,
doesn't he? Knows the Lord. What about you? What about me? What about her?
So the Lord said to this man, now look at his answer to this
man, verse 14. Man, who made me a judge or divider
over you? In other words, am I some estate
lawyer just to divide up, divvy up stuff? You know most people,
that's all God is to most people, a sugar daddy. What are you going
to do for me? Here's the irony of what our
Lord just said. He is the judge. All judgment
is given in his hand, and everyone will stand before his judgment
seat to be judged by him. And he is the divider, isn't
he? He is the one that divides, separates the sheep from the
goat. And he's the one, those who have the son have life, those
who don't have the son don't have life. So he's the dividing
line. What do you take? The world or
Christ? That's the separation. That's
the sword. He's the sword. Well, then he says in verse 15,
he utters this warning. Take heed and beware of covetousness. My, my, do we need this in this
day of such extravagance as materialism. May these sayings sink down deep
in our ears. When he says, take heed, and
that word is used quite often, take heed, it means listen very
carefully. Listen very carefully and do.
I like to put the two words together, hear and deed, heed. Because
you hear it, but you're blessed if you do it. Our Lord said,
if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. He said,
He that hath my words, and keepeth them, doeth them. Heed. Take
heed. Listen very carefully what I'm
about to say. Beware of covetousness. Take heed. As I said so many
times in the Scriptures, particularly Hebrews, It talks about heed. It says, We ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things we've heard, lest at any time
we would let them slip. For the Word, salvation, it was
heard by our Lord and the apostles. It goes on and on. Take heed,
harden not your hearts as in the day of provocation, like
the children of Israel. What was their problem? The world. They were overcome by the world.
They were enticed by, tempted by the world. They wanted to
go back to Egypt for leeks and onions. Go back to the slime pits, back
into bondage for leeks and onions. I want to be like Moses, don't
you? Considering the reproach of Christ's greater treasures
in all the riches of Egypt. The reproach of Christ with his
people. I want to be like that. I hope
I am like that. So he says, take heed and beware. The word beware
means be wary. Be watchful. Don't be sleepy
or dull of hearing. Be wary. Be watchful. And scriptures
always connects watching and praying together. And what we're
doing is asking the Lord, make me beware. Lord, open my eyes. Open my eyes. Be watchful under
prayer, for without Him we cannot watch. Be on guard, look out
for covetousness, covetousness, covetousness. You know, our Lord calls covetousness
idolatry. The last thing that John, we
went through the first epistle of John not long ago, the very
last words that he spoke were, little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen. Why? Why is it covetousness idolatry? Because if we love ourselves,
if we love the world, if we love things more than God, then he's
not our husband, is he? He's not. That Isaiah 54 is where he says
that, thy maker is thy husband. We either, he is our beloved
or he's not. It's just a fact. And what if
you're married to a woman or a man and all they wanted in
their relationship is things? If all they talked about and
they didn't spend much time with you, they didn't talk to you,
but they were always talking about things and how they could
get more things. Is that a marriage? Is that love? Most of the older ones in here
who were married many years ago, 40, 50, 60 some years ago, when
you started out, you didn't have a thing. Didn't have a thing.
Hardly. Our furniture was broken down,
was given to us. We set our couch up on bricks.
We loved it. Thought it was the greatest couch
we ever had. Kind of wish I had it back. We didn't need anything. Why? We had each other. Right? An old song living on love. That's life. Love. Isn't it? And that's the life
in Christ. Love. Any man love father, mother,
husband, wife, houses, land, anything more than me, Christ
said. Not my disciple. Not my disciple. This is convicting in it. Covetousness. Covetousness. We all have a problem
with. It's a lust of the eyes. Desire
for things. Lust. Lust means an intense longing
for. Now who in here does not have
a problem with covetousness? That you think about something
you want and you have a hard time thinking about anything
else. You get a little extra money and you start thinking
about how you're going to spend it. Anybody? I'm guilty. Someone gave me,
this is a $100 Visa gift certificate. Wasn't that generous of them? Wasn't that nice of them? I picked
it up this morning and looked at it and I started thinking,
how am I going to spend this? Oh, I need this, I need that. You
know what I ought to do? I ought to give it away right now. I'm
not going to. It's mine. But that's us, isn't it? Seriously,
we get an extra. Used to be, when I was 18, I
had $5 in my pocket and a full tank of gas. Ooh, boy. Watch
out, world. Here I come. Right, Rob? All you think about. We laugh, but it's not funny.
Because this is what separates God's true people from pretenders. Look at 2 Peter chapter 3 with
me, 2 Peter chapter 3, and the whole third chapter of 2 Peter
is him talking about the end, the end, the end. And he tells
us what manner of people we ought to be. And he talks about the world
scoffing and mocking, saying, where is the promise of his coming?
It's 2020. He's not coming back. At the year 2000, they were pretty
worried. Oh, yeah. At the millennium,
everybody was a little concerned, though they wouldn't admit it.
So it came and went. See? 20 years have passed, and
this is exactly what our Lord said would happen. At a time
when you think not, when nobody's thinking about him, he's not
coming, there's nothing to this. Like that man said, the Bible's
man-made and I believe in science. And my beloved wife said to him,
you're going to find out. That's for sure. You're going
to take your chances. You're going to take God at his
word. Look at 2 Peter 3 verse 11, verse 10, the day of the
Lord will come as a thief in the night, which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise. Elements shall melt with
fervent heat. That's not a nuclear bomb. That's
the brightness of his coming. That's what Scripture said. He'll
destroy with the brightness of his coming. Our gods are consuming
fire, but those in him aren't consumed. Those in him won't
be consumed. Read on. It'll melt. They'll
all melt with the fervent heat. The earth also and the works
that are therein. What works? Everything that man
takes delight in and wants and lives for is just going to be
gone. The surest way to do away with
everything is burn it where there's no trace of it whatsoever. ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Read on, seeing then, verse 11,
that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all holy, or that is heavenly, eternal conversation
and godliness, looking for, looking forward to, hasting, that is
talking about. You know when you go on a vacation,
You think about it and talk about it and prepare for it for a month
ahead of time, don't you? Don't you? You're looking forward
to it. That's where you want to go.
That's what you want to do. You want to go on with somebody, family,
whatever. That's what you look forward
to. That's what this means, looking forward, hasting. And it's, you
know, you talk about it all the time. It makes it near. It makes
it real. hasting the coming of the day of God wherein, again,
he reminds us, the heavens on fire will be dissolved, the elements
shall melt with a fervent heat. Nevertheless, we according to
his promise, blessed good news, we look for new heavens and a
new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." And after the body, there's nothing
more they can do. Nothing more this world can do.
It's over. All the pain and suffering and
tears and sin and death, it's over. A land wherein dwelleth
righteousness, joy, peace, the Holy Ghost. Christ and His people. You like to sing the songs of
Zion? You like to hear the word of God preached? You just wait. We'll do it with a perfect heart,
unspeakable joy, without end. You're going to be singing at
the top of your lungs. And you're going to have the
most wonderful voice. And everybody there is just like
Jesus Christ. Verse 14, so beloved, seeing
that you look for such thing, be diligent to be found of him
in peace without spot and blame. So go back to our text. So beware
of covetousness. Now, let's look at this parable.
The Lord gave this parable to illustrate covetousness. He said, a man's life doesn't
consist in the things he possesses. He spake a parable. Let's read
verses 16 through 20. He spake a parable unto them,
saying, The ground, the ground, mind you, of a certain rich man
brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself,
saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits. And he said, this will I do.
I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there will
I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul,
thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine ease. Eat, drink, and be merry. 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? Thou fool, the parable of the
rich fool. What would a man give in exchange
for his soul? Our Lord asked that one time.
Well, most people are like Esau. The Lord called him a profane
man, meaning that this world and everything in it was his
life. He sold the birthright, his interest
in God, eternal things, worship. He sold worship. He forsook the
worship of God for a bowl of beans. He was a hunter. He was an avid hunter. And this
is so relevant. He was an avid hunter and that
was his life. And he came in from the field after hunting.
He was faint. He needed something to eat. And
Jacob tricked him, but Jacob said,
sell me your birthright. And Esau said, what do you have
there? He said, I'm cooking some, sodding
some pottage. I've got some really good baked
beans in a pot. That's about what I want. He
said, here, take this, old boy. I don't need God. I'm hungry.
Give me that. Scripture says God hated Esau. God hated Esau. Was that unfair
for God to hate Esau? Esau hated God. He didn't care
a thing about God. He'd rather eat a bowl of beans
than worship God. What would a person give in exchange
for their soul? An eight-point buck, a six-pound
bass, tickets to the Super Bowl, tickets to Daytona 500, a six-pack
of Budweiser. Anything. Right? Anything. Look with me at 2 Timothy
3. Oh, let this not be so with us. In 2 Timothy 3, the Lord talks
about the last days, and I think I was going to bring this up
in the next message, I may have got them confused, but this certainly,
I didn't realize how well these two messages go together. They
said in Chapter 3 of 2 Timothy, this know that in the last days,
perilous times shall come, men lovers of their own selves. That's
now in covetous, covetous, boasters, big talker, proud, blasphemer,
God's name on their lips, disobedient to parents, unruly children,
unthankful, nobody's giving thanks to God, unholy, materialistic,
without natural affection. Look down at verse 4, traitors,
nobody's words good for anything, heady, high-minded, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God. You say, why is that more
now than any other time? Because there are more people
now than ever. Because our Lord said, as in
the days of Noah, when the whole earth had corrupted his way,
the whole earth was corrupted his way, the whole earth turned
from the truth, 120 years, Noah said, get in the ark, get in
the ark, eight people. They asked the Lord, are there
few that be saved? Our Lord said, when the Son of
Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth? Shall He find somebody
who's really wanting Him to come? Someone who really loves Him,
and looks for Him, and waits for Him? Are there few to be saved? Our Lord
said, as in the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son
of Man be. The whole earth, some estimate that there were hundreds
of millions of people on the earth at the time of the flood.
All right, the Lord destroyed it all, and now it's repopulated. And in Matthew 24, the Lord gives
many things concerning the very end, and He said, when the gospel
is preached all over the earth, then the end's come. That's now. That hasn't been
in any generation previous to this. Now the gospel is clearly
heard everywhere. Have they not all heard? Yes,
verily the sound has gone to the end of the world. Well, this
rich man, this rich man, look at verse 21. The Lord says, so
is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward
God. First of all, he took credit
for everything that he had. You don't hear him giving God
any glory, or he was unthankful. He was covetous. He was a boaster. He was proud. My soul, look what
you've accomplished. Way laid up for yourself. Lover
of self. Lover of pleasure. Covetous.
Unthankful. Unholy. Had no thoughts of God.
He didn't say, Lord, will it? There's nothing wrong with having
a barn. There's nothing wrong with tearing
it down and building another one. Okay? As long as you say,
Lord, is this your will? As long as you say, Lord, thank
you for what I have. There's not room for it. It may
be better to, I don't need all this. I'll give most of it away.
There's nothing wrong with that. Job had, you know how many barns
he must have had? How many camels did he have?
Cattle? He had a lot of barns and a lot
of servants. Nothing wrong with that. No evil
in things. No evil in possessing things.
But when they possess you, and you forget God, and you take
glory for it, and you don't thank Him for it, and you don't give
back a portion of what He's given you, and all you think about
is things, not God, it's evil. Evil. Our Lord one time said,
because iniquity abounds, the love of many shall wax cold.
That has never been more true than now. Iniquity abounds. What kind of iniquity? Did you ever believe you'd see
and hear what you're seeing and hearing now? anything of iniquity
of man. So the love of many without natural
affection, the love of a husband for what divorces up to about
60 percent, love of parents for the children, rather give them,
rather have a career than raise their children. On and on it
goes. Love of God, love of the truth,
love of worship, love of God's word, love for the kingdom. No
more concerned about saving our life. And our Lord said, if any
man saves his life, if that's all you want to do, save your
life, you're going to lose it. And it says there in Revelation,
it says of these, that the martyrs and those who beheaded for the
gospel, like Hebrews 11, all those people that didn't accept
deliverance. They said, bring it on. Like
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Burn us up. And then it'll all
be over. Won't that be wonderful? It says
of those, it said, they loved not their lives unto death. They loved not their lives. Who
did they love then? Christ is their life. Go ahead,
take us. That means we go to be with who
we long to be with. This is the line in the sand,
it really is. This man, he got everything from
the ground. Do you notice that? From the
ground. You know, that's where everything's going back. I've
reminded us that all we have, and then what psalm is it that
says man returns to his earth? He returns to his earth. What
we're going to end up with when we die is dirt. We're going to
put us in a box and put us down in the dirt and that's it. Everything
we've ever done. A hole in the ground. Man, let these sayings sink down
deep in my heart. So the Lord said, Oh, that's
the way it is with those who lay up treasure for themselves
and not rich toward God. This is a whole message in itself.
Rich toward God. I want to be rich toward God. What does that mean? Rich toward
God means rich in faith. And faith is not in the head.
Because it will flee from you. But Christ is in your heart. The heart. Man believeth with
the heart. Faith in the heart. Understand
that. Read Proverbs 8 for yourself.
It talks about Christ. It says, I am riches. I am true
riches. I give lasting riches and treasure.
My riches, my treasure are greater than gold and silver. Rich in love, rich in joy, rich
in peace, rich in contentment, rich in faith. You know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, don't you? That how he was rich, how
rich he was, yet for our sake became poor, that we through
his poverty might be made rich. You know that, don't you? Our
Lord was rich beyond I can't, no man can stand and
talk about how rich our God Christ was and what he did. Why? Love. I'm going to get my
bride. She's in the pit. For him to
live in this earth for one year was like us being in a cesspool.
Wasn't it? He did it for 33 years, brother. 33 years. But he did it willingly,
for the joy set before. And in his death, Mindy and I
were talking about death this morning on the way here, that
we don't get to choose the means of our death. We don't. It's
not going to be like you think it is. You might die in pain.
You might die of cancer. You might die of this virus.
You might die of a car wreck. It's not going to be. People
don't choose. Your husband wouldn't have chosen
to die like he did. You wouldn't have chosen for
him to do that. But God did. And he witnessed a good testimony.
That gave great glory. Unbelief and fear dishonors God. It discourages the brethren.
It grieves the Spirit of God. Why don't you trust me? We don't
get to choose the means of our death. God does. And the bounds
and the time. So what should we do? Trust Him. Fear not. Fear not. Huh? Whatever the means are,
hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. It's taken me home. Our Lord
was rich. He chose His death. Do I need to remind you what
he chose? What about me? What would I not endure for that? What's wrong with me? Don't I
love him? He was rich. He was rich toward
God. Rich. He had nothing. He had no place. He was a homeless
man. But he was not like one of these
fellas. Many of them are charlatans. They're standing on the street
corner at a part of a collaborative work where they all pool their
money to a pimp somewhere. I'm telling you the truth. If
they worked as hard at trying to get a job as they do standing
on the street corner, they'd have something to eat. Our Lord was not a homeless man
in that sense, okay? But he chose not to have a home. He had one suit of clothes on,
one pair of shoes. Why? To show us God provides. God is my dwelling place. I don't
need a place to lay my head. I'm underneath the everlasting
arms. I dwell in the shadow of the
Almighty. That's what he showed us very clearly. He had no fear
of anyone or anything ever. That's rich. We got a mighty
poor faith, don't we? We're afraid of almost everything.
He had no fear. Nothing anyone said could bother
him. Nothing that he saw bothered
him. Nothing anyone, they were just yelling and all the noise,
some pestling. He's just calm, just peace. That's rich. You know that? People spend all their lives,
we spend all our lives trying to make ourselves happy. It's
not going to happen. You can't make this flesh happy.
It's insatiable. And I tell you what, in times
of trouble, when the great storms of life happen, ain't a thing
in this world, ain't a person in this world could give you
any peace. None! Our riches can't buy it. Our brethren, our people can't
give it to us. Our Lord was rich in peace, the
greatest storm the disciples had ever seen. What was He doing? Sleeping. That's rich. That's rich. And he told his disciples, and
he's telling us, if you had that much faith, that much faith, you'd be faced
with a mountain. And he'd overcome it. Just that
much. We're very poor. You know that? We're very poor. Very poor. Where
does this rich come from? from our Lord. He has it all. Alright, look at verses... I'm
out of time. So he said, let's just read it,
22 and following, he said unto his disciples, this is to us,
therefore I say unto you, Dire warnings to others. But he's
talking to his true disciples. Take no thought for your life,
what you shall eat, neither for your body, what you shall put
on. What about dying? He just said that, didn't he?
Don't fear them that kill the body. Who's them? Anything, anyone. Don't fear. Don't fear them.
Why? Because if that's all they can do? The life is more than meat. The
body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens. They neither
sow nor reap, neither have storehouse nor barn. God feedeth them. That's a worthless bird, isn't
it? You have these starlings coming into your yard. Oh man,
you want to just shoot them off. God feeds every single person
in this world that doesn't even give him a thought. Worthless
birds. But he's so good. He's tender mercies. And they
don't give him a thought. Brothers, we were born again
to a higher, something higher than that. To acknowledge our
God and to live for his glory. And to live in faith, believe
in him. The world doesn't. Consider that. And which of you, taking thought,
can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do
that thing which is least, why take thought for the rest? Consider
the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, they spin not.
Yet I say unto you, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. God so clothed the grass which
is today in the field, tomorrow is cast into the oven. How much
more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? We're so concerned
about our appearances, aren't we? Oh, my. Oh, seek ye not that
what you shall eat or what you shall drink? That's no better
than animalism. Neither be of doubtful mind.
Read on, verse 30. All these things do the nations
of the world seek after. Your Father knoweth you have
need of these things. But rather, here it is, seek
ye the kingdom of God. And our Lord said in his word,
seeking me you shall find me when you search for me with all
your heart. Seek means to continually, constantly,
never quit. And all these things will be
added unto you. Fear, this is the verse, a verse,
that as a young believer, I was struggling so with sin and the
world and just thought I was going to perish and be cast out.
I was walking the train, Brother Stephen, walking the train at
2 a.m. by myself. Sin and struggling
and all that, you know, how we do. And this verse came to my
mind. Fear not, little flock. It's
your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So while we do have trouble with
covetousness, and He warns us, beware of it. Aren't you glad we're kept by
the power of God? Aren't you glad that the Lord,
if He takes it away, He'll with it give a way to escape? Verse
33, so sell. Here's His counsel. Sell that
you have. Give all. Provide yourselves
bags which wax not old. Treasure in the heaven. A treasure. That faileth not, no thief approacheth,
neither moth corrupt. For where your treasure is, that's
where your heart will be also. So, what a word that is. It's so needful. May the Lord
give us ears to hear and a heart to receive.