Thank you. Well, good morning, everyone. Join me in your Bibles this morning,
Luke chapter six. If you would have a chance to
read this inside your bulletin by
J.C. Philpott, Good article in there and has
much to do with what we're looking at today. We've been reading through these
words of the Lord here in Luke chapter 6, and we're going to
read this morning. Let's start in verse 20 and we'll
read down through verse 26. And he lifted up his eyes on
his disciples and said, blessed be ye, poor for yours is the
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye that hunger now,
for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now,
for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye when men shall
hate you. and when they shall separate
you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your
name as evil for the son of man's sake. Rejoice you in that day
and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven,
for in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. But
woe unto you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Woe unto you that are full, for you shall hunger. Woe unto you
that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you
when all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers,
the false prophets. So the four woes is our message
today. And it was appropriate that the
first words in this article by J.C. Philpott There's a wondrous
change, both of views and of feelings produced in the new
creation. And that's the difference between what we read in the first
few verses here and what we read in the ones we're gonna be looking
at today. We've kind of looked at those through verse 23 in the last
few lessons that we looked at. And today we look at verse 24
through 26, the woes and the converse of all which we've read in the
previous verses 20 through 23 here recorded. Instead of blessings,
we have woes. And who is sufficient for these
things? What makes the difference? And
it's only the Lord that accomplishes that in us. And it's a wondrous
change, as Mr. Philpott says, a mighty revolution
effected by a power no short of that of God Almighty. And
so we have two classes here represented in these beatitudes and these
woes, both of which were impacted by sin and the fall. And here
we come to these verses that are descriptive of those that
are in their unregenerate state and that state that we're all
in from birth, our natural state. at enmity with God, and we have
this classic representation between the division between grace and
unbelief. Those who have been blessed by
virtue of the purpose of God, who sovereignly entered their
names in the Lamb's Book of Life, and those, as we all are in our
natural state, unbelievers at enmity with God. And so in verse
24 it starts out as in contrast to what we read in verse 20,
blessed be ye poor, well now it's woe to you that are rich,
for you have received your consolation. Rejoice, this is a you've received
your consolation here on earth. And we're talking rich here,
not necessarily in the physical sense, as many of God's believers
in the Bible, we read back in the Old Testament, many of them
were well-to-do. Abraham, and Lot, and Isaac,
and Solomon, to name a few, were well-off. The spiritual danger in this
verse deals with a richness which leads one to a sense of self-assurance,
a self-determination of one's outcomes, and a reliance on things
of this world as opposed to a total reliance on Christ for salvation.
And so it doesn't necessarily correspond to one's financial
position in this world, but more has to do with their sense of
self, no matter what their finances. A good example we find in the
scriptures, Paul, he went from kind of one extreme in that to
the other. He said, I've profited much in
the Jews' religion. I was a well-off Pharisee. had great power and he was rich
and then later on he writes, well I've learned to be content
in whatever state I'm in because I know that those things are
not really of material value eternally or spiritually. So we find here that being rich
in self-conceit is just as deadly as rich in goods in this life if
they're both coupled with unbelief. That's not the deciding factor.
It's our belief and what causes that change as Philpott here
writes in this excellent article here in our bulletin. So here
the Lord is warning of grief to those who place their trust
in riches, in wealth, in position, in possessions, in abundance. And there's many errors that
are rooted in this kind of unbelief. apart from just not believing
that there even is a God, that the world is random and without
purpose when every evidence that we have declares that it is not.
In Romans it says the very creation tells us that there is a God
and we are without excuse. We'll not be able to approach
Him and say, well, We didn't see any signs. We didn't see anything that led
us to believe there was a God when the very creation itself
declares that. Selfishness, which is rooted
in what's called the reductionist view of everything, where everything
is reduced to its simplest state. You're born, you live, you die.
That's all there is to it. The world just goes on and it's
random. with no purpose really other
than what we experience while we're here. The physical world
is really all there is, so it just becomes a matter of securing
what you can out of it by whatever means and quantity. the mindset that goes with it
becomes paramount in one's life. That's all I can get for me. And that's kind of where Paul
was. He utilized his religion and
all of his connections and everything to be wealthy. And yet later
on he says, well that was all dung. That didn't count for anything. The converse of this type of
belief and thinking is that the world and all its goods are not
really the primary factor. It's not the reason we're
here. It's not the reason why the world is here. so that we can get all we can
out of it while we're here. The primary purpose is rooted
in Christ, in the purposes of God. The goods and riches and all
that thing are secondarily important, or not even that, but they're
transient. And the real value, the real
treasure, the real riches are found eternally in Christ and
in our relationship with and through him. That's what we find
is important. is eternally important. Man is
but a vapor, and man is as the grass, and all those things we
find. We'll look at some scriptures about that here in a bit, but
there are so many scriptures that give us a sense of this,
that life in this world is brief and transient, and a person cannot
take the physical of this world into the next. Salvation cannot
be bought except by the shed blood of Jesus Christ in our
behalf. In fact, they that trust in riches
deny there's even a need for salvation. If it is needed, well,
I'll just go down to the store and buy what I need to get me
there. they can supply themselves whatever
is required. That's my works of some kind. In the last few minutes of my
life, I'll contribute to Salvation Army or something. I'll make some magnanimous gesture
at the last minute that'll square me with God, if there is a God,
just in case. And so there's a couple of scriptures
that indicate what we're talking about here. And if you join me
in Psalm chapter 49, and we'll look at two or three different
scriptures here, but this one's found in Psalm 49, starting in
verse six. And Remember all these scriptures
are written, directed by the Holy Spirit. Holy men of old
wrote as they were driven or moved by the Holy Spirit. They
were driven to tell us of the riches of grace in Christ and
that leaning to all these other things are never going to make
it. Psalm 49.6 says, 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. For the redemption of their souls
is precious and it ceases forever. That he should still live forever
and not see corruption, for he seeth that wise men die, likewise
the fool and the brutish person perish and leave their wealth
to others. Of which there's always a big
squabble about. So there you have it. You can't
trust in your wealth to square you with God in this life, and
after you're gone, somebody else is going to have it. It'll be
their problem, and you can't buy your way in with that. Turn with me in Matthew, we'll
read a couple of verses. In Matthew chapter 19, Matthew 19, verse 23 and 24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
verily, I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the
kingdom of heaven. And I say again, I say unto you,
it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And we just see example after
example of that in the scriptures. The rich young ruler that Norm
mentioned here in one of his past messages. And he said it
could have even been Saul of Tarsus that he was talking to.
He said, I've got a lot of, I'm really rich and I've got all
kinds of goods. What may I do to inherit eternal life? And
he says, Well, sell what you got and give it to the poor and
then we'll talk again. Nope, can't do that. I can't let go of that. I'm trusting in that. It's difficult for one to give
up that self-determination. That's why free willism is so
popular from the fall with Cain and Abel as we discussed last
week. It's so popular because it appeals to man's nature that
he has some control over his destiny and he can choose or
not choose, or he can do or not do, or he can create his own
way. Let's look over in Luke chapter
12 since it might be a little while before we get that far
along in our study in Luke. But in Luke chapter 12, beginning
in verse 15, the Lord speaking again 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 you know the Lord is such
an example He, the Creator of all things,
and the life that He lived, not tied to any of that stuff, no
one could say of Him, well, He's only doing that because of His
great wealth. You know, the people in Israel
at that time, they were all looking forward to the coming of the
Messiah, and they expected somebody fabulously rich and powerful
and leading a great army to come into Israel and redeem them from
the Romans. And they looked for that. And
yet, here comes a man humble, riding on the foal, and the Son of Man hath not a place
to lay his head. He had no possessions. He had
nothing but eternal life to offer and grace. And people were looking
for the typical things that they would experience from a wealthy
king. Prestige and honor and all those
things. And he was in possession of more
than they could imagine and yet they didn't see that. And he goes on in Luke chapter
12 here in verse 16 with a parable saying, the ground of a certain
man, rich man brought forth plentifully. And you know, when things are
going really good, we think, oh man, we are good. And he thought within himself,
saying, what shall I do? Because I have no room to bestow
all my fruits. And he said, this I'll do. I'll
put down my barns, pull them down, and build greater. And
there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say
to my soul, soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.
Take thine ease and eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto
him, thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.
Then, who shall those things be which thou hast provided?
And so is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich
toward God." Not rich in giving to God, not rich in trust, rich
in grace, rich in Christ. Those are the riches that we
look to. And he said unto his disciples,
therefore, I say unto you, and he's trying to teach them something
here. He gives them this parable and then says, therefore, because
of this parable of the rich man that thinks everything depends
on his wealth and he'll have it forever. He says, take no
thought for your life, what you shall eat, neither for your body,
what you shall put on. He says, trust in me, I'll take
care of all those things while you're doing the things that
I assign you to do. Life is more than meat, the body
is more than raiment. When he sent them out, he always
said, don't even take an extra pair of shoes. Don't take any
script, which is a little wallet that you would carry your money
in or your provisions or whatever. Take no script, don't worry about
I'll take care of feeding you and your clothes aren't going
to wear out. Don't worry about any of that
stuff. Your mission is to go forth with the gospel. find my
sheep through the gospel. So they went out with that. Another
verse here in Luke chapter 16 verse 13, No man can serve two
masters, for he will either hate the one and love the other, else
he will not hold to the one and despise the other. He just can't
serve God and mammon, and it's just a metaphor for works and
grace. You can't trust, you can't homogenize
the two and make it work. You have to go one way or the
other. The one way leads to woe, and
the other way leads to riches through Christ and grace. So you cannot serve God and man.
Then we have the, further on in Luke chapter 16, we have the
record of the rich man and Lazarus, and I'm sure you're all aware
of this. We'll just read a few verses there in Luke 16, 19 through
23. And there was a certain rich
man which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and he fared
sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and
desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's
table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. That's
pretty pitiful sounding. It's like that guy has nothing.
He's less than nothing. And it came to pass that the
beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
And the rich man also died and was buried. Well, he doesn't really go into
much about the beggar person, Lazarus, but we can just assume
since he was carried to Abraham's bosom that the Lord made himself
known to him and through free grace showed him the truth of
it. So we find the other one, died,
and he was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being
in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his
bosom." And he said, boy, I wish old Lazarus would come and dip
one of his nasty old fingers in some cold water and drip it
on my tongue, because this place where I am is awful. So his dependence
there on all of his riches and wealth and faring sumptuously
every day didn't end up with him in a place where Lazarus was
in Abraham's bosom in heaven. So the object of our story there
is to look to Christ and not to self-reliance. It's only the
Spirit of God that can and does cause this to happen. In our
natural state, we just can't let go of that. We're like Cain. Well, I did this. Why isn't that
sufficient? If there is a God, he ought to
look at things from my point of view. And so we all know how
that ends. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter
55, verse 1. And there's a scripture here
that tells the story Ho, pay attention. Ho, it's like, listen up, as
our pastor brought to us here in one of his sermons. Everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money,
Come ye and buy and eat. Yea, come and buy wine and milk
without money and without price. The coinage of the spiritual
realm is not physical money. The coinage of the spiritual
realm is the shed blood of Christ. And so we come, I'm gonna kinda
condense, I was, normally I would just spend like one whole lesson
on each one of these, but I didn't want to. So I'm not gonna. I wanted to move on to the next
part, which I was looking forward to, it was really good. But I
had to get through these woes here. Verse 25, woe unto you that are
full, for you shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now,
for ye shall mourn and weep." Again, the words of the Lord
regarding the rich man and Lazarus kind of come to mind here as
well. The rich man was full, he fared sumptuously every day,
and yet he was wanting in the end. He was in a situation eternally
where he was going to be hungry and there was going to be no
satisfaction for him, no relief. And that's what Abraham, he said,
well, Abraham told him, well, there's not going to be any relief
for you. It's too late. He says, well, what about my
brother? Send him back. Send him back. Have him talk
to my brother and warn him of this terrible place where I'm
at. You know, He's got Moses and the prophets, and the gospel
is in those. If you'll not hear them, you
wouldn't even listen if I sent somebody back from the dead.
And we've seen that time and time again in the New Testament.
The Lord raised the other Lazarus from the tomb. And you know what,
Lazarus probably had a story of the riches of grace to tell
them. And what was their objective? We need to figure out a way to
kill him again, because he didn't stay dead enough to suit us.
And not thinking that, well, if God could raise him from the
dead, then what would be the point in killing him again? That
would just make him like a double miracle. The natural man's rationalization
of things is affected by the fall. They can't see the Kingdom
of God, and they can't enter into the Kingdom of God, and
they can't understand any of that. So, woe to you that are
full, for you show hunger. Those that are full, that are
satisfied with the things of this world, are really disinclined
to seek that which satisfies eternally. They have no desire.
We desire not the knowledge of you. I think that's what it says
in the Old Testament. They stopped up their ears. They
don't want to hear it, and we hear that. You know, we try to
share the gospel with a family member or a friend or something,
and they say, stop. I don't want to hear that. I
don't need it. I'm rich and full of goods. I
have no need. I'm full. I'm satisfied with things of
this world. They think, well, this is all
there is. I have what I need. I don't need anything else. They're
satisfied in their heart. They have need of nothing. And
that's a danger to fall into. Even for Christians, you know,
the Lord wrote to the church in Revelations, you know, you're rich and you think you
have need of nothing, and yet you're poor and miserable and
blah, blah, blah. You've got your eyes off of me.
And you're looking to other things. and apart from grace. Psalm 63,
5 says, my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness. You know that marrow, it's kind
of like the richest source of nutrients. When you cook an animal up to
eat it, the marrow is full of rich nutrients. and fatness in my mouth shall
praise thee with joyful lips. In Psalm 65 verse 4, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest. I like the way this is all brought
together because it addresses the sovereignty of God in eternal
electing love and how he directs his people even when they're
against him and hate him. And yet, he says, blessed is
the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee,
that he may dwell in thy courts, and we shall be satisfied with
the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. And like
Paul said, well, I've learned to be content in whatever state
I'm in, because being well-to-do and well-fed here on this world
is not my mission. My mission is to go forth with
the Gospel and to tell people about the Lord. And then, our last one here in
verse 26. Woe unto you when men shall speak
well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. Woe when our goal is to have
all men speak well of us, no matter the compromises that we
may have to make to accomplish that goal of being praised and
admired. Remember, we kind of finished
our last lesson with avoid compromise in the truth of the gospel. But that gets you a pretty small
audience. It might be the right audience,
but it's not going to be huge. When we live to have men speak
well of us, then we're living for flattery, and we're looking
to be envied by the world at large, and seemingly important,
and seemingly blessed physically in this world. And the TV evangelists
are just full of those kind of preachers. The situation they're in, in
their view, is a reflection of their goodness and righteousness
in this world. They're pleased in being envied
and admired, and they're proud and boastful. They don't come into town driving
a Prius. They're in a big luxury Cali
or Escalade or limo, stretch limo or something and got their
Italian suit and diamond tie clip and rings on all their fingers
and bells on their toes and all that stuff. And they're pretty
slick. But you know it's better to stand
for the gospel, stand for the truth of the gospel and live
by it, than to gain all the world's favor and admiration by compromising. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil
workers. Beware of the concision. Paul
wrote that in Philippians chapter 3. And he was addressing some
folks that were being attacked or they were after them
because they were saying, you know, we believe in grace, but
we want to compromise that with a little works. You still need
to be circumcised. And so he ends this by saying,
It's kind of a metaphor, but he says, beware the concision,
which is a word translated into English means mutilation. They were taking a symbol that
God had implemented in the Old Testament to identify a people
and turning that into more than what it was designed to be. They
were turning it into a requirement, a rule, a law, something that
you needed to do in addition to grace. Beware of dogs, beware
of evil workers, beware of the concision, for we are the circumcision
which worship God in the Spirit. and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, he says, if anybody thinks that he has whereof he
might trust in the flesh, I more. I fulfilled all those things
required. by what these guys are preaching,
these Judaizers, these law givers, these people try to return you
back to some form of rules and control and law. He said, I was
circumcised the eighth day. I fulfilled that obligation.
I'm of the stock of Israel, so check that box. I'm of the tribe
of Benjamin, so check, check, check. The Hebrew of the Hebrews,
check, check, check, check, check. And as touching the law, I was
even a Pharisee, which was a real top of the chart legalist. So
check, check, check, check, check. He says, but all those things
that were gained to me in this physical world So I counted those
lost for Christ because those things actually kept him away
from Christ. The rules, the law, the legalism,
the works for salvation. Those things steered him in down
the wrong road until the Lord, through grace, set him aright
on another road. He said, and yea, doubtless,
He says, his view has changed from what it was. I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. He says, turns out that's what
the real riches are. That's what the real wonderful
things are. Not the things that I had, my
own works, my own wealth, my own riches. I count them all
lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and do count
them but done that I may win Christ. Remember in our last
lesson, we were talking about blessed are you when men shall
hate you. Well, Paul found himself in a spot typically found by
a lot of people, most people I would say that the Lord reveals
grace and sovereignty to. When you are a member of religion,
you are in the chips. You are well-liked, you are a
friend to everyone, but the minute you start saying grace, salvation
is by grace and nothing else. The minute you mention the word
sovereignty, if you so much as bury the word election or predestination
or any of the foreknowledge or any of those forbidden words,
then you suddenly move from being well-liked to well-hated. And
as we know from our last lesson that you If you were a Jew, you
lost a lot of things, not only when you left that religion. You might lose your place of
business. You might lose your trade. You might lose your way
to make a living. And they might take away from
you that even what you had. And he says, so I've suffered
the loss of all things. And I don't think he was kidding
when he said that. I lost all the physical things that I had
at the time. He says, I've suffered the loss
of all things and do count them but dung. He says, they, eternally
speaking, they have no significance in my life. He says that I may
win Christ and be found in him not having my own righteousness.
which is of the law, which I used to try to do all the time, but
don't anymore. But that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. And you notice he didn't say
faith in Christ, he said the faith of Christ. He was trusting
that Christ had fulfilled all the things necessary for him.
And he didn't have to do any of them himself. He couldn't
do any of them himself. And that got him the righteousness,
which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made
conformable unto his death. And he goes on to write to the
Colossians, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy
and vain deceit after the traditions of man after the rudiments of
the world and not after Christ. And so that will conclude our
lesson on the four woes for today and know that The only riches
that count are the riches in Christ, the riches in free grace.
And next time, Lord willing, we get together, we'll be beginning
in verse 27. And the interesting thing that
we'll be looking at here is how Christ fulfilled every single
one of these things that he says. I say unto you, a lot of religions
say, well, here's the new rules for you to live by. After you're
saved, you need to not only keep the old law, but now here's some
new stuff to do, too. What happened to the things that
I didn't do yesterday? What happened to the failure
before? It's a debt that accumulates,
and we find that every one of these things He did. And we kind of get to enjoy that
vicariously through him. And much as we might try to accomplish
all of these things that are written here, we're going to
fail at some point. And all we can say is, like Paul
said, through faith of Christ. The
righteousness of God which is by faith. Him doing for us what we couldn't
do for ourselves again. We found that in the beginning
of Luke and now we find it again all the time. So thank you for
your attention and as always, be free.