Ian, welcome to our continuing
Bible class in Luke chapter 7. We just have a wonderful lesson
today. I look forward to being here
with you all and those that are joining us via sermon audio and
Zoom. So if you join me in Luke chapter
12, Get to my top of my notes here. Kind of the title of today's
message is Treasure in Heaven, but it's really three or four
different things that could be the subject, but that's the way
it starts off with today. But it's, you know, we're always
talking about context of things and it's important to note the
sequence of and the subjects of the dialogue of the Lord here
as He is visiting with His disciples and instructing them and the
church in this block of Scripture in chapter 12. And remember in
chapter 11, He had performed some miracles and then He had
dinner with the Pharisees. He pronounced woe to them, and
Pharisees and lawyers who were kind of in the business of fleecing
the flock instead of feeding it. I appreciate that hymn there
we just sang, and part of our message today has to do with
that. But you know, it's no accident that the Lord dined with those
religious zealots, and perhaps there was a... a dividing there
that we find all throughout this Scripture here where he's comparing
one thing with another. That's a theme that goes throughout
this. You know, it wouldn't surprise
me that we would meet someone in heaven came up to us and said, you know,
I was at that dinner and the spirit of the Lord crushed me. And when others, the enmity just
grew worse, which is part of both things are in the scope
and purpose of God. He came to call his sheep and
to the others, they were going to be allowed to complete what
was their mission, which was to crucify him. by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and with
wicked hands have crucified and slain." Just as the Scripture
said. And you know, the next thing
he does after he talks to these, he has supper with these Pharisees. And you know, in our frail, mortal
bodies, I can imagine them saying to
him, you know, they want to kill you. And then us. And so he says,
fear not. And he proceeds that, he says,
I say to you, my friends, to those I said, whoa. But to you,
my friends, I say, fear not them that can kill the body. You're with me. The body means,
the body really is nothing. Just a tool, God the Father's
purpose for the redemption of His people in eternity. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5,
he said, We have a building of God, a
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. What a glorious
thought to think about. And it's a good base thought
for us to keep in this world that we recognize this fact and
where we are and with whom we have to do and not be too concerned
with some of the other things. And he says, I say unto you,
my friends, the next thing he says, how valuable you are to
him. He says, your hairs are numbered
on your head. You're more valuable than the
smallest sparrow doesn't fall to the ground without your father
knowing it, and you're more valuable than many sparrows. The hairs
on your head are numbered," and various things like that that
he said to let the church know how much he loves them. And that's
a recurring theme that we also find throughout this scripture.
He talks to them in terms of endearment, and talks to them
in terms of love. But he's always drawing the dividing line, saying,
but on the other side of the fence are those that are at enmity
with me. You know, in verse 8 and 9 of
Chapter 12 clearly shows that line, the two results of gospel
and grace. If you recall back to our lesson
on confessing Jesus, we had the confessors. and the deniers,
and remember that confessing Jesus was that Greek word, homologous. I believe that's how it was.
It means to speak the same thing, to agree with, to acknowledge,
and to give thanks. We went to Romans 10, verse 9,
where it's written, that if thou shalt confess with the mouth
the Lord Jesus, and believe in the heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." And it's not just
a formula for salvation, it's just stating a fact. Because
in verse 10 he says, and he explains that so it doesn't get turned
into a works kind of a, okay, I said the magic words, now God
is obligated to me. He says, because, With the heart,
man believes unto righteousness. And then as a result of that,
with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation, not confessing
as we would normally think of it, but agreeing with Him, acknowledging
that He is all of our salvation, that He did it all, and we did
nothing. We agree with Him, and we acknowledge
that, and we speak the same thing about grace. We don't try to
incorporate some merit of ourself into there. With mouth, confession
is made in regards to salvation, not for the purpose of salvation. And then the one who denies the
Lord, remember that from that lesson, that word deny, he says,
he that denieth, that Lord said, he that denieth
me, my Father will deny him. Well, the one, the first deny
means to contradict, to reject, to refuse. and him will my father
deny and that deny means to affirm that one has no connection with
that person. It's to utterly deny the knowledge
or the relationship with that person. It's not a deny them
just as a saying no or something that it has to do with a personal
relationship, and that's the relationship that we find that
he says to them on the left hand, depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, I never knew you. That's the kind of denying that
that is. And so he makes this comparison
between those that are in agreement with him, those that he loves,
those that are his church, those are his elect, and those are
the deniers that that the father never knew. And then the next
thing we go to is the dividing the inheritance. And we learned
that the inheritance has been divided from eternity. Inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of
the world. The inheritance is Christ. And there's no dividing
that between his flock and those others. And then we learned in
verse 22 through 32, the ultimate loving care that the Lord provides
for his flock. And he calls them Fear not, you
little faiths. I just love that term when I
looked it up in my Greek Interlinear. Because before, that whole sentence
has a question mark on the end of it, and it ends with, oh ye
of little faith. And it's just been used, I think,
in an incorrect way in a lot of religion to abuse people. But he says, You little face. You know, if you look up the
faith in the New Testament, it almost always has an of in front
of it and a Jesus on the back part of it. The faith of Jesus,
not anything that we can muster up by ourselves. And then he
says, fear not, you little flock. It's my father's pleasure to
give you the kingdom. What a glorious thing to tell
these people and to tell the church today. Fear not, little
flock, for it is your father's good pleasure. It's his good
pleasure to do that. He takes joy in giving them the
kingdom and giving them Christ. And so today's lesson is based
on these things. We have these two elements here.
We have those whom He's loving and saying wonderful things to,
and then He has the other ones that He's saying, woe to you,
and the ones that should have been paying attention, and the
ones that through grace do. Today's lesson again is Treasure
in Heaven. Where your hearts are, Where your treasure is, there
will your hearts be also. And Christ, He is our treasure. And it kind of brings up the,
well, what can you take with you into heaven? Because as we
read that block of Scripture, maybe we should just take a few
minutes here to go back and read that section of Scripture that we're
dealing with here. Let's start in verse 28, if then God so clothe the grass
which is today in the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
how much more or how much rather would he clothe you, ye little
face, it says in my inner linear, and seek not what you shall eat
or what you shall drink, neither be of doubtful mind. And remember,
we spent some time looking at that doubtful mind was where
we get the word meteor, meteorology and meteorite and all that from.
for these things do the nation of the world seek after but and
your father knoweth that you have need of these things we
have to eat we have to drink we have to be clothed and be
warm and we need all those things but we need to keep them in perspective
of They're not all that there is, because he says, fear not. He says, I'd rather seek you
the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.
And fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. Sell that you have, give alms,
Provide yourselves bags, which wax not old, and a treasure in
the heavens, which faileth not. Where no thief approaches, neither
moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also. So it's just good for us to,
that's our baseline, our focus on Christ. If that's where our
heart is, that's our treasure. That's what we love. And then
he says, Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning.
And ye yourselves, like unto men, that wait for their Lord,
when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh
and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are
those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.
Verily, I say unto you, that he shall gird himself and make
them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them."
Now, you could underline that part, because these people have
girded themselves up, and we'll look at what that means here
in a minute. But when they get there, he girds himself and serves
them. What an unexpected pleasure,
what an unexpected treasure, what a joy. And then he says
in verse 38, and if he shall come in the second watch or come
in the third watch and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the good
man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he
would have watched. and not have suffered his house
to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also for
the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think not. And then
Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us or
even unto all? And here's, we have another dividing
point here. Peter says, is this just for
us, or is this for the world at large? And here's the divider part.
This talks about the woe to the Pharisees and the scribes and
the lawyers and the ones that weren't prepared. But, and if that servant say
in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to
beat the men servants and maidens and to eat and drink and to be
drunken, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh
not for him and in an hour when he is not aware and will cut
him asunder. and will appoint him his portion
with the unbelievers. And that servant which knew his
Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according
to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that
knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten
with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given
of him shall much be required, and to whom men have committed
much of him they will ask them more. So that's the scripture
block that we're engaged in here. Back up here a little bit to
where I am in my notes. So we're launching from where
our treasure is, there will our hearts be. And he says, let your
loins be girded about and your light burning. Prepare yourself
for action, be prepared. And that expression kind of comes
from the Old Testament and it's found in many New Testament scriptures
as well. And it kind of alludes to, we
were looking in my, computer this morning in Norm's office
there of some old carvings of, they had some pictures of how
people dressed in Bible days, and they kind of had these longish
robes on. And when you were going to do something, they were kind
of in the way. So they would scoop them up and
tuck them into their belt so that their legs were unencumbered
moving rapidly and going over terrain to do whatever needed
to be done. That's found in the Old Testament
quite a bit. In the example of 1 Kings 18,
verse 46, the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded
up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. He
scooped up his robe and was ready, tucked it in, and ran. In 2 Kings,
Elisha instructs Gehazi in the matter of this Shulamite woman's
dead son. In 2 Kings 4.29, he said to Gehazi,
gird up thy loins. And take my staff in thine hand,
and go thy way. And if thou meet any man, salute
him not. And if any salute thee, answer him not again. And lay
my staff upon the face of the child." He was just like, I want
you to focus on this mission. Gird up your loins. Don't let
anything obstruct you. Go there and do what I've told
you to do. And it will accomplish what I
have purposed. And in the book of Job, God says,
gird yourself up like a man." Boy, if you read the two chapters
before that, then you understand why Job at the end of that said,
oh, I'm a vile person. I put my hand over my mouth.
He said, gird yourself up. I will demand of thee and answer
thou me. What a humble response he had there. I'm just, I'm vile. What shall I answer? And in the
New Testament, we find some examples. And of course, here in our text
in Luke 12, 35, let your loins be girded about and your lights
burning. And then we have some application
notes here that we find in Ephesians chapter 6. that gives us kind of the spiritual
context of what he's getting across to the disciples here.
In Ephesians 6, verse 13, he says, Wherefore, take unto you
the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in
the evil day. And having done all to stand,
stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.
and having on the breastplate of righteousness. So we don't
have those long robes, but we have the truth. We gird ourselves round about
with the truth of God, and that gets rid of a lot of obstacles
and aids us. In 1 Peter 1, verse 13, he says,
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, He applies it to a
kind of a mental issue. Be sober and hope to the end
for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of
Jesus Christ. You know that verse 13? It's
entirely predicated on what he wrote in the first verses 3 through
13. He says, you know why you should
do that? It's because you've been begotten
by the Father, born again from above, to an incorruptible inheritance,
reserved in heaven for you. It's my Father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. You're kept by the power, mighty
power of God. And you should, this kind of
goes to Norman's lesson, rejoice, greatly rejoicing in his salvation. Your faith and your total reliance
on Christ, tried by fire and found to be to the glory and
praise of God, it says. These are things to consider.
Whom though you see not, you love and believe and rejoice,
because that's where your heart is, because that's where your
treasure is. Receiving the results of faith, which is salvation,
and he says it's that salvation that the prophets testified of
and sought. searching what or what manner
of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify
when it tested beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the
glory that should follow and in verse 12 of 1st Peter chapter
1 unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto
us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you
by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy
Ghost sent down from heaven which things the angels desired to
look for so he says wherefore Because of all that, all that
wonderful stuff is kind of like Ephesians. It's like, blessed
be the Lord God that's blessed us with all this long, wonderful
list of things. Wherefore, gird up the loins
of your mind with all that stuff. Think on those things and be
sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought
to you at the revelation of Christ. And so our text today, Let your
loins be girded about and your lights be burning, exhibiting
that grace that God has blessed us with. Be ready for the one
who's coming back. Don't get ourselves kind of too
entangled in the things of this world. Gird up that robe of stuff
of this life. Get that out of your way and
be ready to run to Him who gave His all for you, stand for the
truth, declare the same gospel that the prophets declared, and
shine forth the glorious light of Christ who died for our sins
in our place and who suffered the wrath of God against sin
for us. So then we come to verse 36-40. The object being discussed here
is the return of the Lord. It's just so interesting here
in this block of scripture. Norm had these three sermons
they brought at Christmas time. Someone's coming. Someone's here. Someone's coming back. And just
at this time that Christ was there, those Pharisees, those
scribes, those religious people that were in charge of the books
of the law and everything, they should have been saying, someone's
coming. And then when John the Baptist
roamed around the countryside saying, the kingdom of God is
at hand, They should have said, someone's here, someone's here,
and yet they did not. So again, we have this dividing
line here in verse 36 through 40 regarding the ones who are believing
and preparing for that day by declaring the Gospel. We declare
the Gospel until the Lord comes and gets the last one of His
sheep. We have a little section here a little bit later about
Luke 23 and one of the last things he did before he departed up
on that cross, he rounded up one more sheep, the last one,
and then he gave up the ghost. And that's what will happen when
he comes back the second time, when the last sheep is gathered
in, then shall he come and gather it all together. So at the time
of the discussion, there were many there in the Jewish religion
who should have applied this very truth to themselves, but
they, aside from divine grace, They just cannot and will not.
The message they were tasked with was declaring what the prophets
had declared from the very beginning. Someone's coming. Someone's coming. Their job should have been declaring
that someone's coming and he's here now. And they should have been like
John saying, hey, don't come to me. That's the lamb that taketh
away the sin of the world. Go to him. They should have said
to those people that came to the temple. Go see that guy. Go see God Almighty. But they did not. Not only did they not declare
it, but they openly opposed it, and that violently. They should
have been paying attention there to Zechariah 9.9, what Norm brought
the last few times at Wednesday night. Rejoice greatly, O daughter
of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Rejoice. Behold, thy king comes to thee,
and he is just, having salvation, lotally, and riding upon an ass,
upon the colt, the foal of an ass." And again, we have that
dividing. Those that are ready by grace. and rejoice when they see the
King, and those that are not ready. And they don't really
believe in His return, just as those ones that were at the time
of Christ. They knew that even that woman
at the well said, we know that Messiah cometh. They knew what
the Scripture said, that someone's coming. But when He got there, they didn't
believe it. They didn't believe in His return. And you know,
John the Baptist, he came to make a people prepared for the
Lord. He announced Him coming. And
it was written in the book of Isaiah, the voice of one crying
in the wilderness. They should have said, ooh, John
the Baptist? He's here. He's saying, make
ready a people for the Lord. Repent and get ready for the
kingdom of God. And then Christ who showed up
and did all the things that He did, raised people from the dead,
caused the deaf to hear, blind to see, the lame to walk, healed
the lepers. All those things that were recorded
in Isaiah 43, Behold, this day the scripture is fulfilled in
your ears. All those things they should have said, Hallelujah.
But apart from divine grace, they don't. They can't. Behold, I'll send my messenger,
and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom
ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger
of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts." Malachi 3.1. But then you know what he says
in verse 2 of that? He says, but who can abide the
day of his coming? Who shall stand when he appeareth? For he's like refiner's fire
and like fuller's soap. And we, you know, we're going
to find an application of that here in our next lesson. He said,
I've come to kindle a fire. in verse 49, and come to send
fire on the earth, and what will I if it be already kindled? So
here we have just this wonderful picture of how Christ views His
gift from God, this people that were given to Him from before
the foundation of the world by the Father, the eternal love
which He engages us with in this lesson on girding the loins and
You know, if we do a little comparison here between Luke 12-35, where
he says, when he finds his servants all girded up and ready to meet
him, he will gird up his loins and serve them. Well, turn with
me, if you would, over to John 13. John 13, 3, Jesus knowing that
the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was
come from God and went to God, he riseth from supper and he
laid aside his garments and he took a towel and girded himself. And after that, he poured water
in a basin and he began to wash the disciples' feet." What a
picture. Isn't that just a fulfillment of what he predicted in Luke
12? He says, when I come back and
I see my servants ready for me, I'm going to serve them. And
here he girds up himself and washes their feet. And they're
all saying, No, I don't deserve that. We should be washing your
feet. And that's just how he views
those that he's loved. He just loved us from eternity. And he just can't wait to do
things like that, to do for us. And it's just humbling. that He thinks of us in that
way. And we just can't fathom the
eternal love that He has possessed about us, because we just think
in a minute, linear quality, and we just can't understand
that. It's going to be just like he
said. He girded up himself and washed their feet, and they said,
no. And he says, hey, if I don't do this, then you don't have
anything to do with me. As we look at this, and he's
talking about his faithful servants and those that are ready and
waiting, and then he says, well, what about the ones that aren't
faithful? And here it's a reference directly
to those Pharisees and lawyers and people, the religious folks
that were tasked with declaring someone's coming, someone's here. that failed at that, who knew
not the gospel and who were just interested in their religious
power and wealth and all those things that he says, don't worry
about laying up that kind of treasure because it's just useless
in the long run. But it's important for us just
to stop for a minute and realize that Everyone that's ever been
born, everyone that's here, everyone that ever will be born is a servant
of the Most High to do His purpose, to accomplish His will. And even
if they're of these kind of folks that He says, you know, it was
according to the determinant and counsel of foreknowledge
of God that you have by wicked hands have taken and crucified
and slain. He used them to accomplish his purpose and all those kind
of examples that we find in the scripture that we talk about
so often. All the things that God through
providence has arranged from the very creation. and have been
arranged all the way up to the time that he comes back to redeem
the church. Everyone is a servant of God,
and we found that in Daniel Chapter 4, when Nebuchadnezzar learned
that lesson the hard way. He said, I blessed the most high
and praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, his kingdom from generation to generation,
and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
And he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his
hand or say unto him, what doest thou? So we just have to kind of keep
in mind that He views everyone as His servant, but some servants
He loves, and some servants He just uses. They're just hewers
of wood and toters of water, I think the Scripture says. They're there to accomplish His
purpose, but He has no eternal loving
relationship with them. text here in verse 42, in my
King James, it says, And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful
and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household
to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is
that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.
And I was looking at the ISV version of that. I lost my place here. It says in the ISV of verse 42,
it says, Who then is the faithful and careful servant-manager whom
his master will put in charge of giving all his other servants
their share of food at the right time? Isn't that a beautiful
way that that's expressed? Feed my flock. Isn't that what
he told Peter? If thou lovest me, feed my flock. Feed the sheep. And so then he goes on about the
unfaithful servants of various degrees. Some in the general
school of thought there is that the ones that had the most knowledge
of the Bible were going to be held to the greatest degree of
guilt and punishment because they knew the scriptures and
yet didn't apply them in in a spiritual way. They just applied them in
an obey or be punished kind of an aspect. Peter said, are you speaking
this parable to all of us, or just us, or is it for everyone? So he kind of puts his broadside
out there, and he says, Blessed is the servant whom his Lord,
when he cometh, shall find so doing of a truth. I say unto
you, he will make him ruler over all that he hath. And if that
servant says in his heart, that unfaithful servant says, he's
not coming back, we're not going to declare someone is coming.
We might say that, but we're projecting that as a never to
come time, or not in our lifetime, or we don't have to worry about
that. My Lord delayeth his coming.
He's not coming back. and shall begin to beat the menservants
and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken. And the Lord
of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for
him, and in an hour when he is not aware, and cut him asunder."
That's not a good thing to have happen to you. Be cut asunder?
And to be given your portion with the unbelievers? Well, that
means you are one of them. He's not going to mix believers
and unbelievers together in that. Romans 8 says, There's no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. So it can't be talking about
the Lord's believers. But the Scriptures are full of,
there were men who crept in unawares, and they were before ordained
of old to this condemnation, Jude 1.4. And then as now through
all time, there have been those and will be those among us, but
not of us, I guess is how the scripture puts it. They were
with us, but they were not of us. And they seem to be religious. They seem to be, I'm a Christian,
are you a Christian? but not have any idea what that
really involves. They claim to be in the body,
but they're not. They're like those Pharisees
who claim to be servants of God, but are not. They worship with
their lips, but their hearts are far from God. Their treasure
is not there. It's somewhere else. And those
that substitute their philosophy of man in the place of the gospel,
Jesus says, I chose you 12, and one of you is, one of you servants
is not good. And you know, they all said,
is it I? Is it I? And they were just like,
oh man, I hope it's not me. Except one. the unprofitable servants. You
know that judgment is just within the purview of God, and it's
up to Him. Well, you can only see small
glimpses of the hand of God in this, and you know the church
views themselves as unprofitable servants. And as noted in Job,
he says, I'm vile. We were talking about that thief
on the cross this morning. And I said, you know how bad
he was hanging there? And he says, man, I didn't get a chance
to do nothing good. I didn't get a chance to get
ready. I didn't get a chance to do any of the stuff. I didn't tell anybody about the
gospel. I didn't tell anybody anything.
I was just a robber and a crook. And yet, how many people have
read that account in the Bible where there was a big change
in him from going and casting the same vile things in his teeth
against the Lord to suddenly saying, Lord, remember me when
thou comest into thy kingdom. I'll bet he was a surprised dude
when he found out. Oh, that's probably been read
by uncounted millions of believers through time. What a surprise. Many will say
unto me, Lord, Lord, in that day haven't we done many wonderful
things in your name? And he says, you are an unprofitable
servant. I never knew you. But you know, in Luke 17, the
believers say, He says, So likewise ye, when ye will have done all
those things which are commanded you, and you say, we're unprofitable
servants. We just did that which was our
duty to do. We didn't do anything worth anything.
We just did our duty. So, that's our lesson for today. I hope that was helpful and fruitful
for you. Faithful in a few things, standing
for the uncompromising truth of the Gospel. When He comes
back, shall He find faith? Shall He find total reliance
on Christ? So, be awake, be free. Happy birthday time.