Tonight we're going to be in the book of Proverbs, in the 13th chapter. Our topic and our title is The Riches of Christ. The Riches of Christ. Here in our text, Solomon is continuing to draw distinction between the elect of God and the wicked. And he's been doing that now for three or four chapters. And he does it all the way up until, he does it for 10 chapters or so, 21 I believe is when he stops. But the reason that he's doing this, the Lord, by inspiration of the Spirit, the reason that he's doing this is to show us that there's only two. There's a distinct difference between the Lord's people and that which the Lord calls wicked or that which the Lord calls ungodly. He calls, you have the righteous and the unrighteous. And it's the question we must ask is, well, which one am I? Well, who makes us to differ? Would be the question I would ask to that. Who's the one that makes us righteous or who's the one that leads us to our wicked ways and ourself? And it's the Lord, isn't it? He's the one that makes the difference. And that's the most important point of all of this is he's going back and forth between the righteous and the wicked, the foolish and the wise. And it's all to show us that it's the Lord that is the one that makes us to differ. And he gets all the glory. It's all by his grace alone. If we're not the wicked described here, it's all by his grace alone. If we're not the foolish, he's our teacher at that point. And he teaches his wisdom. This is the all because of the riches of Christ. It's the riches of Christ that teach us these things. So let's read our text here. Proverbs 13 verse one, a wise son here is his father's instruction, but a scorner here with not rebuke. A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth, but the soul of the transgressors shall eat violence. He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life, but he that openeth wide his lips shall have destruction. The soul of the slugger desireth and hath nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat. A righteous man hateth lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and cometh to shame. Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way, but wickedness overthroweth the sinner. There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing. There is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches. The ransom of a man's life are his riches. but the poor heareth not rebuke. And when the world sees the word riches here in this text, they're immediately looking at things around them. They're looking at monetary things, they're looking at good, they're looking at things that they can see, and they're valuing those things because they can see them. This all that our natural man can do. They're those who sacrifice the comforts of life in order to gain favor with God. So they say, well, we don't have as many riches as others because Christ is our writ. Christ is our riches. Well, you know, around this area, we have a lot of Amish, Mennonite, those types of individuals. So I said, you probably shouldn't say that. Well, I'm not going to be able to go watch it anyways, because I don't have electricity in most of them. But anyways, the point I'm making is there are people that sacrifice what they do in order to say that they're righteous because they don't do this or they do this. And that's not the riches of Christ that's drawing attention to myself. So there's the distinct difference here. is who are we looking at? What are we looking at? And we're going to get to that in a minute, but we know it has to be Christ alone. If he's going to be our riches, if he's going to be the one that makes us rich, he's the only one that we can be looking to. We can't look at anything else. Can't look at anything else. Revelation 3, Lord told the church of the Laodiceans, he said, you are rich, you are increased with good, and you have need of nothing. He said, but you don't know that you are poor and miserable and blind and wretched and naked. You don't know that you're all those things because you have been given all these physical riches, and you think that it's favor with God, and that's not true. That's not true. That's how man looks at it. But the only favor that we can have with God is by the riches of Christ. It's through and by him, through and by his finished work. These are all talking about spiritual riches. Verse seven, there is that maketh himself rich yet hath nothing. Well, that's a man trying to gain, trying to do, trying to work for his salvation, and he has nothing. But there's, then it says, there is that maketh himself poor yet hath great riches. The Lord's people What did the Lord say about the Lord's people? Blessed are the poor in spirit. You remember the Lord talking about in Matthew where he said, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are these. That's the definition of the Lord's people. They're poor. They don't have righteousness. That's what we're talking about. We're not talking about physical things here. We have no righteousness. We're broke. We found ourself the chief sinner. And not having any righteousness, we got to have Christ and his riches, his righteousness. This is the this is the message here tonight. We look to things not seen. Most people look to things that are seen and it's only by grace that we're looking to things not seen you say, Well, how do you look to things not seen? Well, it's by faith alone. That's the whole point. You can't it can't be by the flesh. So the first question I have, and I want to I try to simplify as best I can as we go through this, and I probably say that quite often, but what are the riches of Christ? What is it? What are they? Because I need to know what they are before I can have a need for them. And we do have a need for them. But the riches of Christ is very simple. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, Yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. The riches of Christ are his great salvation by grace alone. By grace alone, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy. His great riches are his great salvation by grace alone. It's how God chose to save some sinners. It's how God chose to elect some sinners. Otherwise, we'd all be doomed. This is the riches of Christ, how God saves sinners. Turn with me to Philippians chapter two. Look at verse five, Philippians chapter two. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The riches of Christ is how he saves his chosen people, how he saves his chosen people. Is it not glorious to think the condescension of our Lord whenever he was God in glory with the Father? And yet it says here, but he made of himself no reputation. It took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. It was made in the likeness of men. If somebody ever wants to debate theology with you or they wanted to be a doctor and whatever it may be, Just tell him I still can't get over the fact that God became a man. That just blows my mind. And what was the reason for that? Well, this is the riches of Christ. The reason that he became a man was to save a wretch like me, to save a wretch like you, to save sinners. Not to save, well, there's none good but God, but by the world standards, good people? The Lord's people are, our goodness is found in Christ alone. That's the whole point. We have no righteousness, no goodness in and of ourself. The riches of Christ is how God saves his elect sinners all by his grace. It is the who, when, where, and how. God saves sinners. The who would be the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Who saved his people from their sin? The Lord Jesus Christ did. This is the who. How did he do it? Well, it was to the death of the cross. That's how he did it. Sacrificing him, being that sacrifice to save the Lord's people on the cross. By his own blood, he purged our sins. Scripture says in Hebrews chapter one, he did it by laying down his life freely. and satisfying the law's demand, satisfying the father's demand, satisfying everything required for the salvation of his people. And then he was raised because of our justifications, so we know that the work was finished. And in the fullness of time, how he calls us out of darkness into his light is he sends his spirit and power, breathes upon his people, and they become alive unto him. This is how the when and the where, the where is in eternity past and in time, both. This is the Lord's gospel, this is the riches of Christ. Because salvation is of the Lord, out of everything I just described, salvation's of the Lord, it doesn't, meaning there's nothing for you and I to do for salvation, then all the blessings that are found in Christ Jesus are now bestowed freely by his grace to his people. Everything that Christ earned on the cross of Calvary, all the goodness, mercy, grace, salvation, righteousness, holiness, everything that he is and everything that he earned, salvation included in that he now gives to his people freely by his grace. This is the riches of his of the Lord's. This is the riches of Christ. This is rest. This is rest. Because every other gospel that you hear is a false gospel. It does not allow you to rest. You know what the definition of gospel is? Good news. Good news. If you tell me that the riches of Christ are attainable by something that I do, I gotta make them effectual in order for me to receive them. God's waiting on me to do something. That does not give me rest. That makes me very uncomfortable because now if I have to do something, did I do enough? Did I do it right? Did I say it exactly right? If I did, that means I've obligated God. Now he's gonna have to give me what he said he would give me. That's what the mentality is there. That's not good news. That's not good news. If you tell somebody that they got to do this, they got to do that. That's not good news because maybe baptism, for example, I say you have to be baptized. Well, that made it work. What if you can't? Thief on the cross wasn't baptized. I'm just using that as an example, but the point that I'm trying to make here is that the riches that are found in Christ Jesus are by grace alone. It's good news to have this rest in him, not having to worry about working for our salvation, not have to worry about striving for our salvation and worrying about our salvation, because it's not our salvation, it's the Lord's salvation, and he gives it freely by grace. Then he says it's ours. He gives it by grace, but you understand what I'm saying. It's the Lord's salvation to give to whom he will. What are the riches of Christ? What are the benefits of Christ? They're perfect righteousness, peace with God, eternal justification, sanctification, glorification, union with Christ, grace and mercy, grace for today, grace for tomorrow, mercy for right now, mercy for the future. Can't exhaust the Lord's storehouse of grace and mercy. Those are riches in Christ. And what about joy unspeakable and full of glory? Name something else that gives you joy unspeakable and full of glory. You can't because there's nothing else that does but the riches of Christ. Nothing else that does. Paul thought he was rich at one time, rich with knowledge and understand, This is what Solomon's talking about. He actually starts, I've got two thoughts at one time going on, but I have to say the first one and say the second one. Solomon at the beginning of the book of Solomon, he's going through Song of Solomon starting out. Let's see. Not Song of Solomon, that'd be Ecclesiastes, I believe is what I'm talking about. So he's saying vanity of vanity. That was the message, Ecclesiastes. And he's saying, I've got, I've done this. I've done that. I've done this. I've done that. I got me maidservants. I got me menservants. I have an orchestra. There was a whole what he describes as an orchestra. That's what he got. He said, I've built vineyards. I've built gardens. I've built this. I've built that. I've lived a full life. I've tasted of all the food of the world. I've eaten and drank my fill on everything. And it's all vanity and vexation of spirit. He was made to realize that Christ is all. Christ is all. And his riches are unsearchable. His riches far exceed anything this flesh could enjoy. He's saying, I'm never satisfied. I'm never satisfied with the food that I've eaten. I'm gonna be hungry later. Now that's true when it comes to the Lord's gospel. You're gonna want it, but it actually satisfies you whenever you hear it. It's what you have to have. Maybe somebody here does this, I don't know, or somebody that's listening, but I don't eat the same thing every day. Not the exact same thing. It would get boring. I like to, you know, jujit or something. I have to do something different. I couldn't eat the same thing all the time. I wouldn't be able to do it. Well, that's not true with the Lord's people. We eat the same thing every single time. We come to sit and take of the water of life freely. We come to drink of his blood. We come to eat of his, the bread of life. And that's what fills us. That's the only thing that satiates the thirst that we have. It's his righteousness alone. This is the riches of Christ. This is what he's given to us. Paul came to this conclusion also. That was the second thought that I was going to talk about. Paul had this thought also. He says, I thought that I was intelligent. I thought that I was rich. Well, that's what Solomon thought. And Solomon realized he's not rich. His only richness is found in Christ alone. Well, that's what the Lord teaches his people. This world will become not your home. The longer you live in it, the more you'll see things around you. You'll see I'm not of this world. I don't. My place is with him on high. I long to see his face. I long to rest in him for eternity. I long to stand in his presence and worship him. This is the desire of the believer. Well, Paul was talking and he was saying that he was giving his pedigree as what he was doing. He says, if you think you had something to boast in your flesh and you were rich according to what you could have done, he said, I'm the more so. He said, I was born of the house of Benjamin. So I'm a thoroughbred Jew. That's what he meant by that. Thoroughbred Jew, circumcised the eighth day. He says, I've done this, I've done this, I've done this. And then you know what he says? And it's marvelous. The only way that a man would denounce all of that as their righteousness is if Christ becomes their righteousness, because he said, everything, I counted it for lost. He said, I counted it dung that I might win Christ, that I might have him and be found in him. That's the whole point. Be found him in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness is what, which is by the faith of the son of God who loved me and give himself for me. There it is. That's the riches of Christ. Moses says in Hebrews chapter 11, Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure in Egypt. for he had respect unto the recompense of reward." That recompense of reward, you know what that means? I looked up the definition, I wasn't exactly sure what that meant. It means that he looked away from everything else but the reward found in Christ. That's what that means. The recompense of reward. He looked away from everything else. Nothing else could catch his eye. He counted up to vanity because he saw his Savior. He said, okay, I am not going to be called the son of Pharaoh. I'm not gonna be called that. I'm a Jew. What he was clinging to, what he was saying, is he was doing the opposite of what Esau was doing. When Esau said, I don't want the birthright, Moses was saying, I've got to have Christ. That's what Paul's writing about in Hebrews there. What's my point to that? Well, if you want Christ, it's going to cost you everything. If you want Christ, it's going to cost you everything. No, the Lord don't want your heart. That's not what I'm talking about. The Lord ain't broke. He's not begging people for money. He tells us how to do that in scripture. That's not what I'm talking about. It's going to cost you your knowledge, what you think. You're not going to think the same anymore. It's going to cost you your understanding, what you have understood up until the point of the Lord calling you. It's going to cost you your wisdom so that we say boldly, Christ is my wisdom. I have none. It's going to cost you your righteousness. We're going to say, I don't have any righteousness whatsoever. It's going to cost me everything. If I want to come to Christ, it's going to cost me all of that. Everything that I think that's good about me, I'm going to realize is bad. That's what you're exchanging for. And I'm not saying this is your choice. This is the Lord that does this, but you're, it's, If you want to call it a trade, the Lord has to take the bad and give you the good. So it's really nothing that you're doing at all. But I'm just trying to say that you're getting, look at all the benefits of the riches of Christ that you're getting, but look what he's taking. I mean, that's the most amazing part. What happened on the cross of Calvary, taking all of our sin, all of our unrighteousness, all of our evil, our wickedness, our ugly, and we're ugly and nailing it to his tree. by His own purpose to save His people from their sin and putting it away by the sacrifice of Himself by His shed blood. And then what remains? Well, we're made perfectly righteous. We're made holy, we're made perfect. God looks upon his children and he loves his children. He sees them as perfect because as we heard Sunday, Christ is the head, we're the body. He sees us in Christ Jesus. He sees his people as the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't get richer than that. This is the riches of Christ. I will say this, it will cost you friends and family. I know that. It'll cost you time, you wanna come to church. You wanna hear. It'll cost you fame. You won't say look at me anymore, you're gonna say look at him. Somebody said, is it worth it? Well, I didn't make the choice, but absolutely, if it was, it would be worth it. It's the best news I ever heard. I started out my talk saying that, didn't I? We're all made to desire. Seeing the riches of Christ means the Lord's given us grace and faith to believe on him. So receiving those is the work of God, period. We're made to desire the one thing needful. We're no longer made to desire to look at me, look what I know, look what I've done, look what I'm doing. Look to him, look to him, look to him, look to him. That's what we say now. Even to the Father, that's what we're pleading. Not unto us, oh Lord, but unto thy name be all the glory and honor. Look to the blood, because if he's not looking at the blood, he's looking at me, I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. Let's go back to Proverbs. 13. I want to look at those two verses again. Verse seven, eight. There is that maketh himself rich yet hath nothing. There is that maketh himself poor yet hath great riches. The ransom of a man's life are his riches, but the poor heareth not rebuke. Now we don't make ourself poor, but the Lord reveals our poorness, our poorness. And in doing so, he gives us Christ who becomes our riches. We're no longer rich in what we know and what we do. We're rich in what he knows, who he is and what he's done. That's our riches now. The riches of Christ first is how God saves sinners and bestows all the blessings found in Christ to them all by his grace. And the second thing I want to say is the riches of Christ are why he saves sinners. They're why he saves sinners. Everything pertaining to salvation was determined by God before time ever began. but it depended upon the father's election, depended upon the son's death, sacrifice, and it depends on the Holy Spirit regenerating. If the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't come and die, then it wouldn't have been fulfilled. That's why we're talking about the riches that are found in Christ, because God, as we read, if you remember the call to worship, God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. So all the good things, the reason God can give us good things, the reason God can show us kindness, the reason God can show us favor, the reason God can show us mercy and grace is because of one reason, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the reason. This is the riches of Christ. This is the why, because the Lord Jesus Christ was successful on the cross of Calvary. This is why he gives the riches of Christ to his people. If the Lord was not successful, he would not be able to bestow anything to us but wrath and judgment and torment. But because Christ was successful, he gives mercy, he gives grace, he gives rest, he gives righteousness, he gives peace, he gives joy, all these things. God didn't save me because of anything I did, and God didn't save you because of anything you did. Not a prayer we prayed, not a choice that we made. Nothing produced by you or I in any way. So why would God save me? Because of everything Christ did. Because of everything the Lord Jesus Christ did in the finished work of the cross. That's why you and I are saved is by Jesus Christ alone. Because he satisfied every demand of God to ensure it. He said, tell them, tell them that their warfare is accomplished, and I've given unto them double for their sin. What's the double? Well, I think you could go about 15 different ways with that, honestly. But grace and mercy, that's one. Righteousness and holiness, joy and peace. Double would be the riches of Christ. That's what the double is. Whatever is found in him is doubly, doubly better than how bad our sin was. Now, some would have you believe, and I want to say this is important. And I think I've already mentioned this, but some would have you believe that your riches can be found by obligating God. I know a lot of people, I heard somebody, and I'm just trying to elaborate on this just for a moment, but I've literally heard somebody say to someone else, if you would start coming to church, God would give you a husband. That's what was said. That's not biblical because we can't obligate God to do anything. God is not like us. He can't be threatened. He can't be dictated to. And that was not true. What we do doesn't determine what God does. Don't you love the fact that you can't prevent God from doing anything? I can't prevent him and I can't make him do anything. But I can't prevent him either. If he's going to save me, he's going to save me. He's going to have to give me a new heart. He's going to have to do the whole work. I would never come to him. And that's what he does. That's what he does. No, we're not saved because we obligated God because of what we do or don't do. That's the lie. The choice that was left to the man in the garden, that was the only choice that you'll read about in scripture that had anything to do with eternity, with where eternity would be spent. In that choice, In the garden, we blew it. And that's the only time that choice was ever given. But it was given for the glory of God. The Lord purposed in order to redeem his people. We know the reason. At the same time, though, if we were to be given the same choice, we would choose the fruit. We would choose the lust of the eye, the pride of life, lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life. That's power, popularity, and pleasure. That's what that fruit all represents right there. That's what we go after. We wouldn't choose the Lord. We wouldn't choose the riches of Christ. Because the Lord's caused us to be passed from death unto life, by his grace alone, we have to have the riches found in Christ. We have esteemed him greater than anything else in our life. We've esteemed him greater than anything we thought was riches before, whatever we thought it was. We were just like Paul, we're saying it. Nope, that's just, but done now. It's not even worth anything. It's not worth anything. Why God gives you or me or anybody the riches of Christ is because he accomplished a perfect salvation. He cannot fail, he did not fail, and it is finished. He's seated, he's successful. That's why God saves his sinners. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians chapter four, look at verse one. Therefore seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we think not, but have distounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness or handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them their lost. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Lord or the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure, now it's a treasure, that's what we're talking about, the riches of Christ, it's a treasure. We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. What does that mean? That means you have the riches of Christ right now, right now. If you're his, you have the full riches, you're not working to get them, You're not working to get more of them. You're not working for anything. You have them all right now, every bit of it, 100%, all of them. We're not waiting for the riches of Christ, nor are we earning them. He did that. He does that. That's what he gives. That's why he gives the riches of Christ to his people. I love the fact that he didn't make us wait for it. Aren't you? He lets us know that we're saved, but he doesn't give us, I mean, that would be terrible. He gives us all of this already, this life. In this life, he gives it to us. All right, let's go back to Proverbs 13. Let's look at verse 7 and 8 again. There is that maketh himself rich and hath nothing, there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great things, great riches. The ransom of a man's life are his riches, but the poor heareth not rebuke. There are those that think that they are rich, but they are poor. And there are those who see themselves as dead, dog, wretched, vile, poor sinners. And they're the ones that's rich because the Lord's made them that way. If you see yourself as a sinner, that means that you're poor. You can't get poorer than a sinner. not inside of God. It means you have no inheritance. If you're a sinner without having a Savior, if you're a sinner, you have no inheritance from God. You have no hope of eternal life. But if God shows you the Lord Jesus Christ, he gives you faith to believe him, and you see yourself just as a sinner, but you realize, you realize my hope's not in me any longer, it's in him, then you have an inheritance. The Lord's given you an inheritance. He's given you all of the riches of Christ right now. That's what he's saying. Which brings us to the last point tonight. And this is a personal question for each of us. And this is something I want us to ask because it's important. Are the riches of Christ My greatest treasure are the riches of Christ, my greatest treasure. Paul said, examine yourself, see if you'd be in the faith. And you've heard me talk about this before. That doesn't mean look at your life and see how good you're living your life and look at the bracelets you wear and whatever else. No, that's not what he's talking about at all. What he's saying is, I said that because I saw somebody this week had a, remember those WWJD bracelets? They must be coming back in style. He had his arm full of them. And I'm saying, That's not it. That's not what it's about. No, he's not saying examine to see if you're wearing this or that. He's saying, examine your heart. See if there be anything evil in your heart, any unbelief in your heart. David said, search me and know me, oh God. Look deep down and say, if there be any unbelief, get it out. Get it out of me. I don't want to have unbelief. I need the riches of Christ. That's the question. Are the riches of Christ your greatest treasure? Do you value that more than anything? Because if you do, the Lord did that. The Lord did that. The riches of Christ are not beautiful to this world. The riches of Christ are not what they want out of a savior. They don't want him to be God. They would love to have grace. They would love to have mercy. They would love to have physical things. That's what men preach. But it takes away his lordship, and you can't do that. He's Lord of lords and King of kings. We take him as he is because he's purposed for us to do that. He's given himself to us to do so. We take him as Lord of lords and King of kings. Paul said, examine yourself, see if you're in the faith. What are you looking to? That's what that means. Better yet, who are you looking to? Am I looking to myself? Am I looking to myself? You know, we do often look and loathe ourself. We see our sin, we grieve ourself, and we're looking at ourselves saying, how could I even be a believer if I think this way or I do this way or this and that? And that's, I believe every true believer has that struggle. It's the struggle that's the two natures. It's the old man and the new man. I mean, it's just the struggle that the Lord's purpose for us to have. But at no time will you ever hear a believer say that Jesus Christ is not the son of God. That Jesus Christ did not successfully redeem his people. That's the confession the Lord draws from his people. And that's a gift. That's the riches of Christ. That's the riches of Christ. Paul said, I know whom I have believed. Who are we looking to? Christ. Am I looking to myself or am I looking to him? Paul said, I know whom I have believed, not what. Why are we looking if we're looking? Well, because of God's grace. Well, how are we looking? By faith bestowed alone. So who did all that and gets all the glory? Well, that would be the Lord. I didn't earn it. I didn't merit it. It's all the Lord. It's all for his glory. Verse eight, I want you to look at this. The ransom of a man's life are his riches. The ransom of a man's life are his riches. If my riches are self-earned, self-achieved by my decision, the life I live, the sacrifices that I make, what I do, then I am offering my riches to God as my righteousness, as my ransom. You see what he's saying there? This term ransom is not talking about the kind of ransom where you get a note from somebody threatening you, they have something of yours or someone, a loved one of yours that you need back, and they send the note saying, send the money, or I am going to do this, or they're threatening you. That's not what this, that's not what this, it's called a ransom note, that's not what this ransom means. This ransom is how a man or a woman, if they are looking unto themselves, he's literally saying, you're trying to ransom yourself from your sin. I mean, I guess it could be taken that way. If the law is the one being the accuser saying, I'm gonna end your life, and if you don't do this, do that. So in that sense, it could mean that. But whatever we're looking to, is going to determine what we're offering to God as our righteousness. And what he's saying here is if your riches are what you're hanging on to, that's what you're going to offer. You're going to have no hope. I love what the Lord said in Job, and it's almost like some of the notes that I had disappeared or something. So that was, well, I'm kind of fumbling here for a second. I'll get my bearings. I'm coming to a close anyways. But he told Job, Preacher said to Job that the Lord had found a ransom to deliver him from the pit. It was the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the whole point I was trying to make out of that point. This ransom, if we're going to try to buy our own freedom, buy our own life by what we have and call it our riches, I'm not talking about physical things. I'm talking about what we think we know, what we think we believe, how we act, all the things that we do for self-righteousness. The Lord's saying, no, I'll disannul that covenant. So the question is, is the Lord Jesus Christ, is his riches your greatest treasure, your greatest treasure? Well, I'll tell you what he says in Colossians 2, 3, in whom Christ and Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And we've been doing this for a little while, but when I see the word all or the word now, I just keep repeating it to make sure we understand all means all. And that lets me know all means all too, because sometimes I can overlook it all. The treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. He has all of them. It means I don't have, there's no more none left. He has them all. That means I got to have him or nothing. I have nothing. Last thing I want to say is this. Matthew chapter six says, lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourself treasure in heaven. Where neither moth nor dust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If by God's grace, my treasure are the riches of Christ. It's all of God's grace. That means he's given me a new heart. to believe on Him. He's given me faith to believe on Him. And that means my heart is in the right place. It's with Him. It's with Him. So where my heart is, where my treasure is, there my heart is also. But if my, on the other hand, if I don't, if the Lord's not my greatest treasure, if His riches are not my desire, and I'm looking to myself as any part of my salvation, that literally means my heart's with myself. My heart's with myself. It means I love myself. It means I love myself, and that's man's biggest issue, isn't it? They want to be their own gods. If I look to anything seen or done by me, I have missed the riches of Christ, and that means I've missed everything. Missed everything. Let's pray. Father calls us not to miss you. Save us, Lord, we pray, again and again and again from ourself, from our wandering minds. Bless us to our understanding for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.