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Would you like to begin at, uh, verse 10 or 13, which?
Maybe 13 to 40.
This is sometimes there's a lack of clarity as to what verse 10 really means, so it would be good to take it up, OK?
Luke chapter 12, verse 10. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him. But unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto the magistrates and powers, taking no thought how or what ye shall answer for, the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you ought to say. And one of the companies said unto a master, Speak to my brother, that he divided the inheritance with me.
And he said unto a man who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed and beware of the covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. You speak a parable unto him, saying, The ground 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, Soul, Thou hast much good 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 those shall then who shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life what you shall eat, neither for the body what you should put on it.
The life is more than meat, and the body more than raiment. Consider the Ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature? 1 Cubit. If ye then be not able to do that which is least, why take He thought for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, they spin not. And yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
If then God so clothed the grass which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not that sorry, and seek not what ye shall eat, what ye shall drink, neither be doubtful of mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knoweth that you have needed these things. But rather seek ye the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
Cell that you have, and give alms, provide yourself bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens, which faileth not where. Where no thief approaches, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your thought lights burning. And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for the Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh the knocketh they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh.
Shall find watching. Verily I say unto He shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, and come in the third watch, and find them, so blessed are those servants. And this know that if a good man, if the Goodman of the of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not have suffered his house be broken through.
Be therefore ready also for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think not.
As we mentioned this morning, this chapter takes up what should characterize the disciples in the day or the time of the Lord's absence.
He was rejected and He was preparing them to be suitable witnesses in the time of His absence. And as we mentioned that there the chapter is a series of 19 depicting the night of his absence. And he mentioned that there were at least five different things that he seeks to set them free from that would make them bright and shining witnesses in this world as they waited for His coming again. 1St 3 verses we mentioned that really He set them free from hypocrisy.
00:05:09
And verses 4 through 12. We set them free from the fear of man.
And then from 13 to 30.
To to 21, we'll have to set them free from covetousness, and then from 22 to 34 we set them free from worry or anxiety.
And then from verse 35 to 40, we set them free from worldliness.
Supposed to be summarized those five things. No covering, no cowardice, no covetousness, no care, and no carelessness.
These things were rid of the lives of the disciples and our lives. We would be in that right posture.
Looking for the the coming of our Lord.
Where we began reading this afternoon is in the middle of that second point, setting them free to of the fear of man to confess Christ in this Christless world.
And you had a thought there on verse 10 about the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. You thought we should touch on. Well, it's really, uh, in connection with, uh, those that.
Reject Christ and reject the Savior. They reject the King.
And really, the Spirit of God presents Christ as the source of all blessing.
And if I sin against God and reject Christ as the source of all blessing, the source of eternal life, why God has nothing else for mankind. And so the children of Israel here the, the Jews, they rejected Christ. They sinned against the Spirit of God who was really bringing before them Christ as their king. And they said that they really accused him of casting out devils by the Prince of the Elizabeth. And so then he goes out. It's really, I like the term.
The terminology that used in Matthew's Gospel chapter 13 in that connection, it says, uh, verse one, Matthew 13 and verse one the same day went Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside and great multitudes were gathered together unto him. And so he went out of the House of Israel and he sat by the seaside. So the gospel is now going to go out to the Gentiles, the the Jews, the Jews had sinned against the Spirit of God and.
They wouldn't receive Christ. He had. God had nothing else to present to them.
Pick up that ninth verse and uh, but he's a denieth Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. Didn't Peter deny him before men?
And is he speaking here of disciples that are real? Because there can be false recycles and in fact he was talking to one if he was just talking to the apostles, he was talking to one who wasn't real. So is is this more?
What characterizes a man's life rather than just denying the Lord like Peter? What?
I'm asking a question.
Well, I think you get a little bit of that answer in Second Timothy chapter 4.
Umm, I think it's verse 10.
Dimas hath forsaken me, having loved this.
Present world. And then does that mean that he wasn't a believer? I believe he really was the believer.
But he departed, and he went, having loved this present world, and departed unto Thessalonica. And so he denied the Lord in a sense that in the practical expression of sharing his rejection, he would rather go on in the present age, in the present world, and forego the association with a rejected Christ. And beloved brethren, this is the only opportunity that you and I are going to have to identify ourselves with an.
A rejected Christ as right now and if we shrink from it, there's not going to be that reward. There's not going to be that. I don't find identification with Christ and the glory as those that have shared in his rejection.
00:10:01
There's not going to be that reward as it were, be thou over 5 cities and umm, so we can deny him in our practical walk, but umm, where is it that says as well if we deny him? Yet he is faithful, he cannot deny himself. Second Timothy 212.
Let's read that as well. Second Timothy 2:00 and 12:00. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us.
If we believe not yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. And so it's this little picture is given to us that we're going to be denied a reward. We're going to be denied the privilege of being identified as those that suffered in rejection with the Lord. What a privilege it is for us. We have no idea what it means to the heart of the Lord Jesus to have us identify ourselves with a crucified Christ.
A rejected Christ.
But the day is soon going to be over. We're going to be in the glory with him and will wish, I think all of us, if we're honest with ourselves, will wish that we had identified ourselves with a more in this scene.
Could mean too that a believer will endure and so that this man shows that he wasn't saved at all. This is of course fact, but I I think it can be pliable at waste.
Yeah.
What is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost?
Is that Chapter 11 and verse 15?
Yeah.
It's really.
Well, speaking in an unrighteous way of holy things and of a holy person, speaking impiously of that which is holy. Now you and I that have Christ as Savior, we know the Lord, we love the Lord. That's not our course. We speak lovingly of our Savior. But those that are in this world that have heard and received some of the testimony of Christianity, it's possible for them to even come to a gospel meeting, come to the Sunday school, all that sort of thing.
But when it comes really down to it, they have no appreciation for the person of the Lord Jesus or for the work that he did on the cross of Calvary. And they will make impious statements and, uh, just, uh, set aside entirely the work of Christ.
Well you know the Lord knoweth them that are his, and we can never look at one that has rejected the Lord Jesus.
And in this scene, while I'm still alive and say, well, that person has sinned against the Holy Ghost, there's no, there's no opportunity for that person to be saved. That's not true. We need to recognize that the grace and the kindness of God is such that he can turn the Sinner around, but the Lord himself sees. And so he says the Lord Jesus sees if there is that evil heart of unbelief.
And that's really what it speaks of in, uh, Hebrews that wait, that the soy's, uh, that uh, sin that does so easily beset us is really the sin of unbelief.
But this is really speaking when it speaks of the sin against the Holy Ghost is an outright rejection.
Of what the Spirit of God is presenting.
We might want to just.
Close this one now with a comment about apostasy, because I know that the intention was to move on into the rest of this, but want to be careful that we do not leave something for a troubled soul to be occupied with now for the rest of these meetings and not have peace.
00:15:07
Let's, umm, let's say that.
An apostate can never be saved. It's a very solemn thing for a person to be alive on this planet and not be able to be saved. What is an apostate? An apostate is one who has known and professed the truth and turned his back on it publicly.
Traveling under foot, the blood of Christ. And uh, Hebrews tells us that it's impossible to renew that one again to repentance. Can I believe or ever do that? Can a believer become an apostate? No, and I'm gonna read 2 scriptures real quickly. If, if there's ever a scripture that you think a person could be saved and lost, it fits into Matthew Chapter 7, verse 21. Just quickly. Now, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven.
And many will say into me that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and then cast out many devils, and in thy named on many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you depart from me that work in equity underline those words. I never knew you. Now John chapter 10.
Verse 26 addressing that professing multitude. But ye believe not, because you're not of my sheep, as I said unto you, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. Underline those words for comparison purposes, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Now there shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So one that has made a profession in Matthew Chapter 7, but has been unreal, and may or may not have.
Uh, been an apostate, but in any case, that person has made a profession without being real, he says. I never knew you. How does?
The person from John chapter 10 fit into that who? He says I know you.
Those two that those two verses should put to bed any who may be troubled as to the eternality of the salvation, the, uh, perfect finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ giving us that in place where we stand before God fully justified. Uh, so this thing of apostasy that we see ought never to trouble a believer, but it ought to trouble a believer to come across one that they might think could be. And as Robert has said, we're not in a position to make that call.
On another.
Well, if we keep them before us, the moral thought that the Lord is laying down here, that is delivering the disciples from any.
Uh, fear of speaking the truth faithfully. He goes on in that 11Th and 12Th verse to tell them that the Spirit of God is going to come to assist them and to give them what thoughts to say and what words to utter in order that Christ would be confessed brightly before this world.
And this is not talking about a man preparing for a lecture, uh, that he may be asked to, to take with the Lord's people. This is talking about confession of Christ before the world.
That, uh, we don't need to take with thought we should, uh, or how or what we should answer. There are some who have taken this out of context and context is very important to get the understanding of the, the, the lines in scripture and think that you should never even take a thought as to what you're going to say before you ask to get up there. And then whatever comes to mind, uh, that must be the spirit of God and, uh.
That sort of thing. And this is the verse that they would use for such, but I don't believe that they understand the context of the passage. This is public testimony before the world when you're confronted with regards to questions with regard to your faith, your faith in Christ.
I'd like to apply it a little differently, uh, see if this application would work And, and you know, sometimes when we deal with souls, umm.
We sometimes after we walk away, we said, I, I, I wish I would have said this or I wish I would have said that. And uh, then we are, are sometimes when we were talking to someone and thoughts will come to us that we didn't have before, but we see that that is something that the Lord had for that soul. So is it right to say that when we, when we do deal with ones at work or whatever circumstance we're in?
00:20:09
That we ourselves, of course, uh, need to be obedient and, and independence on the Lord and of course in communion so that if the Lord wants to speak through us to someone, we realize that the work is his, that he's dealing with the soul. So just to make application, would you allow this, that the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour? What you ought to say is perhaps allowing that to use that in that reference, Would that be OK?
As the moral thought of it, I think it's more to do with your, your confession of your faith before, uh, those who would confront you and so on. Whereas the other, the, the misapplication that I was referring to, you know, this idea that you just get up on the pudding and wing. It is just not scriptural. And the verse that I would use for that would be first Timothy chapter 4, verse 6, where Paul was encouraging Timothy to be a good minister of Jesus Christ nourished up the words of the faith.
And in sound doctrine, and he says, where unto thou hast fully followed up, you fully follow up on a subject to you know it well enough till you get on your feet. You know which direction you're going and you know what you're talking about at least somewhat. You're never going to feel like you have a grasp of any subject in Scripture. That's infinite, of course, but at least you feel comfortable that you know what you're presenting to your brother is a good doctrine. And sometimes that versus this verse is used in this wrong way.
To excuse laziness to to excuse rightly dividing the word of truth and studying the scripture, just get up and wing it. But that's not, uh, rightly dividing the word of truth. This is talking about what George has just mentioned, being confronted about your Christian faith before those who are posers.
God will help you to say what you need to say, and the Spirit of God will use it to convict their souls.
If he's working with them.
There's another principle that, uh, we find in Proverbs 11 Chapter, uh, Chapter 11 and verse UH-25 The liberal soul shall be made fact, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. And so often times God works with the vessel that he's using, and so the Spirit of God will give something to give out, but then it says he that water shall be watered also himself.
Well, the Spirit of God, I sometimes you say, brother George, you know, you, you speak to someone and perhaps, or you take a gospel meeting or something and you, and you think, oh, I should have said this. I, I should have said that. And what was, I just wasn't thinking, you know, and I, I should have done this. And, well, I used to, uh, think that way. And, uh, but now, you know, I, I, I drive home or something after a meeting and I, and, uh, something comes to mind and I say, well, thank you, Lord, That's a nice thought.
Something else comes up and oh, that's, that's nice. Thank you. I appreciate that. And then just enjoy something of communion with the Lord about the passage that was taken up.
And I believe that this is really what's taking place Shall be watered also himself. And so we're not to premeditate the confession of faith, as it were. We're umm, we ought to be always ready to give an answer for the reason of the hope that is in us. But we don't need to have a prepared statement. If you want to use that terminology. It's going to be a work of the Spirit of God because every soul that comes before us is going to have a different need. But be prepared. If you open your mouth, God is going to speak as well. He's going to water as well.
And I just say this as a word of encouragement to my father-in-law had a man, a Finlander that worked for him and he didn't have very good English, but, and he was a Carpenter, you know, And so he would cut a piece of wood wrong or something and he would use this statement. He would say what man he works, he makes the mistake. No, what man he no work, he no make the mistake, you know.
If you're going to take up the Word of God, there's going to be mistakes, there's going to be a little bit of stumbling. If you try to start a hymn. It's not going to start right every time and that sort of thing.
But what man, he works, he makes the mistake. The man he no work, he no make the mistake. And so we need to be exercised with before the Lord and just to exercise our priesthood. There's going to be mistakes. They're going to be a little bit of stumbling. The Lord is going to show us our humanity and how weak we really are. But let's just per persevere, let's just move forward.
00:25:04
So we have the support.
With the three persons of the Godhead, the whole Trinity. With regard to the confession of Christ before this world, as we mentioned, we have the friendship of our Lord. Jerseys in verse 4.
And then we have the, uh, the care of God our Father in verse six. And then we have the teaching of the Spirit of God, verse 12.
But this assurance should give us to be free of the fear of man and the confidence to speak up for Christ and not be afraid to speak the truth. And as the meeting closed this morning, I'd just like to repeat what Brother Dave said. And that is, if we fear God, we will not fear man. Our problem is that we don't live sufficiently in the fear of God, and we allow ourselves to get affected by.
Man.
Well, we should move on as we said verses 13 to 21, the Lord would seek to set them free from covetousness, another thing that is a great hindrance from being a bright and shining testimony in this world while we wait for Him to come.
And uh, the Lord doesn't introduce the subject. There's a man that is anxious about something, obviously a man that's got a problem with covetousness and he actually speaks up and interrupts the Lord in the middle of his, his discourse. And this is not unusual in Luke's gospel. You'll find the Lord is such a lowly man in this, what we might call the social gospel. Luke's gospel is a social gospel and he's conversing with individuals and you find over and again people just interrupt him.
In fact, he's such a lowly man, even a woman who in those days were near their place better than the average today.
Had enough courage to be able to interrupt our Lord while He was discoursing. Turned back to Chapter 11 and verse 27.
It says, And it came to pass, that as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed be the woman's one. How do you like that?
And the blessed Lord never says, wait a minute, I'm speaking, let me get finished first.
He just answered her and then used it as an object to teach more things. He's such a perfect savior. How many times we got offended when somebody interrupts us because we think what we have to say is so important?
But not the Lord. And so this man does the same thing as that woman, and she speaks he he speaks up right in the middle of the Lord speaking here and asked him to help him with regard to.
This, uh, getting the inheritance that he thought should come to him. And the Lord immediately discerns the man's spirit. He's covetous. And so the Lord uses that as a platform or a springboard to teach some lessons to his disciples of the need to be free of covetousness.
We've had some of that already in the address and the Lord has ordered it that we should have it now again in this Bible reading. And as one brother said to me, it must be that the Lord has something to say to us about this.
If it's going to come up again this afternoon and all I could say was Amen, brother.
To say about the Lord's perfect response, would that be the the fine flower and the meal offering as a perfect man? There was always that perfect evenness, that perfect response, part of the moral glories of the Lord Jesus.
Never said one word in a wrong tone of voice.
That's pretty condemning of me at least.
I think that's the reason why that they're called the Gospels. We take up a synoptic look at his life and as Matthew, Mark and Luke and his life, as you study, it does one singular thing to the Sinner. It condemns them. It condemns us too, even as believers. We fall so far short. And then if you find at the end there's a perfect sacrifice there, as you see him dying, shedding his blood to put away our sins, that's why it's called the Gospel. And those are the elements of the Gospel.
Message that the center would realize that he's a center in the presence of God. But there's a provision been made. And so as you read through the Gospels, you feel condemned by this perfect life. You get to the end and you find there's a sacrifice for you to put all that sin away and you brought into blessing. That's the element of the gospel.
00:30:02
So he tells the disciples, take heed and beware of covetousness. We're told in Colossians chapter 3 that covetousness is a very serious sin. It's akin with idolatry. In fact, it says Colossians 3.
And covetousness, which is idolatry. Now you say what? How could that be? Well, the principle of idolatry is something climbing into our hearts and displacing the affection that should be there for Christ. And it goes out on some other thing. It displaces affection for Christ is what an idol is. And so if we allow anything to come into our life, could be some project, some hobby, some interest, some sport, that that it gets out of proportion in our lives. We begin to think about it and dream about it, to talk about it, to live for it.
It's become an idol in our lives and uh, we want to acquire everything as part of that endeavor and we end up with building all these stuff that you were talking about, Robert, and possessions and so on that come into our life. It comes through the gate of having a covetous heart. And I know what I'm talking about, brethren. I have to humble myself here and say I'm no much better than anyone here with regard to this point, but the Lord has given us this chapter and these things need to be said.
Even though the persons that may be saying these things here this afternoon need to check their own lives.
The list of awful things in, uh, First Corinthians 511, uh, fornicator, idolater, railer, drunkard, extortioner, but included in that, also in that list of awful things I've written into you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother B includes covetousness.
So what is coverage system? Uh, what is covert's simply defined?
Mr. Darby tried to place an unbridled desire, I believe in the verse that you were mentioning. Unbridled desire, unbridled lust.
And, uh, the flesh, a picture of the flesh out of control, wanting its own way, regardless of the authority of God himself, is it not A desire for something that God has not given me very simply. And I think we could, uh, that that's going to encompass a lot more, uh, for our souls, you know, this matter of, uh, abundance here in verse 15, as you were telling us, uh, Robert, we don't really need to be told. We know it, but we live in an abundant society.
And it's all about our needs. It's a need driven thing. And we get completely out of synchronization with what really we need and what we don't, apart from covering and things like that. But in verse 15, he says a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And I think we're honest. Don't we tend to rate people on what they own, Even the Saints? Oh, it must be a godly brother.
Or, you know, because he has a few things and that.
That Jewish thing tends to creep into our Christianity. And so then there is, uh, the other side of denying, uh, these things. And that can be sort of an acetic thing and pride can get, uh, going with that too. And I'm thinking of a verse back in the Old Testament where, uh, in, umm, Proverbs chapter 30.
Two things that I require that they deny me them not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Doesn't that sound like a good solution to all this? Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor in steel, and take the name of my God in vain.
I'd like to suggest that's not the answer. The answer is in Philippians chapter 4 verse 11 where the apostle Paul.
Says, I have verse 11. I have learned in whatsoever state or circumstance I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things. I am instructed to be full and to be hungry, to be to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. And so the Christian position is.
To be able to handle things of this world responsibly. What is addressed here is going beyond and hoarding up or uh, packing away and to the point of it completely shuts the Lord out of everything in our lives. And you'll notice here how many times I is used from verse 17 and on the comment.
00:35:19
Uh, about the ground of a certain rich man and so on.
It's all his, it's his little Kingdom, and he doesn't see himself as part of God's Kingdom where there is a king who has authority. He has authority in his own life and things have, uh, and that's really the danger of the abundance of things and stuff as we have been considering earlier, isn't it? But it's a great thing for us to know how to abound and to be abased and to take both of them from the Lord and to be responsible with both.
Because we can crash on either side of this road very easily.
Somebody has said that it's, it's not a sin to have money or riches, but there's always a danger. And I think that's what we we need to. This is a matter of the heart. And as one has said, the water is free, but somebody has to pay for the plumbing. You know, the ministry here is free, but somebody is going to have to put in the plumbing, pay the bill at the at the motel and different things. And so I, I think that.
You know, it's it's useless for the Lord. That's one thing. This man was aggrandizing himself with it and so the scripture says.
Love not the world, you know, the things that are in the world for all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and what will give you the ability to satisfy each one of those things? Money. And so there's always a danger, but it's not only money that that I think that the Scripture that.
Our brother Bruce read, uh, in, uh, in Colossians there it's connected with.
Last full sexual sins, every one of those things that are mentioned there, uncleanness, fornication, inordinate affection, evil, concupiscence, all of those things. And then it says covetousness. I, I am I pronouncing that right? I hear it pronounce covet chestnuts. I think it's covetousness. I, I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but covetousness and, and uh, so it can be other things.
There there's people in this world that don't they, they don't care what iota about money. They want drugs, you know, where they want to have fun, they want these other things. So covetousness is a matter of our heart desiring something like the brother said, that God hasn't given us, and it's desiring something to make us happy outside of God.
Now the younger people here, perhaps somebody could explain?
We're saying, you know, it's something that God hasn't given us. They're looking at some of the older people here that have homes, cars, clothes. Where is the spiritual balance there? I mean, you can't say God gave me my house. I mean, he doesn't. Somebody didn't just hand over the mortgage papers and put my name on it. So perhaps a brother can explain that so the younger people don't get stumbled and think, well, where does this all fit? Maybe these guys are all liking the beginning of chapter. A bunch of hypocrites. That's not what we're saying.
It's a spiritual, well, I'll say what I say if something you guys can add to it because there's a balance there. If you, if you come to the place in your life where you grow up and you're looking in your future, you're going to need a place to live. But you don't go out and mortgage yourself to the eyeballs so you can have that place. So all these guys can say, whoa, that's a nice house. You have to have that balance. Like where, where does your income take you? What do you actually need? It's not what is, what do you want? It's an actual need. I need a home to, to shelter.
Two or three children, I need a car to take me downtown to so I could do my job. Well, I don't need a Jaguar or Mercedes-Benz to do that. Volkswagen Jetta do just the same thing. So I think there's a balance that we have to understand that COVID is, is, is something you're, you're, you're, you're desiring something more of a want than a need. The Lord will provide the needs and he provides that. So you go get a job, save you money, get the home. But you know, there's many people we're talking about stuff.
How many of those people are so far in debt because of their stuff?
00:40:02
And Exchange backed in the back in these storage rooms, they, they're not even using. It's just packed up. It's stuff. So there's a, there's an intelligence here that needs to be looked at also.
And one reasons why we do things and, and, and both of them are wrong. One is that somebody has said this is not mine, but uh, we can afford it and I want to. So those are two things that are selfishness. You know, God hasn't given things just to aggrandize yourself or to keep it upon yourself. That's what men use it for. That's why it's called filthy lucre, because it's that medium of exchange that men have used.
To satisfy themselves outside of God, but you can make friends to that filthy lucre. You can make friends. You can send it on ahead. You can get out the gospel, uh, or you can spend it on yourself and.
I don't know.
All I can say, and we have to be careful too, if you think about these things, that I think our brother mission balance, umm, that we don't in some cases think 'cause that brother.
Is wealthy that therefore he must be blessed of the Lord or on the other side, because he's poor, he must be really a spiritual man. Umm, all those things, uh, have to be held in the presence of the Lord. And I think the parable that the Lord expounds here, uh, illustrates that is how he held the things that he had and he held it for himself. And we have to be careful about judging one another and say, well.
Uh, brother Billard, uh, he's holding that in covetousness, uh, covetousness, sorry. And, and, uh, we have to be careful how we express those things because we don't know that brother's heart, that sister's heart. We need to let the Lord, uh, work with that and, and to be thankful when the Lord gives us, uh, things, uh, we have to be, make sure we hold it as, as really he's the giver and we're thankful for it and enjoy it before him.
And to use it, like you say, to use it for him, These are things that, but when we hear an address like we heard just recently, certainly there's things that we can say, whoops, maybe there's something in my life I can, uh, own that is, needs to be judged and needs to be dealt with. But I think, uh, again, if you notice how many times in this parable, not to skip ahead, but notice that the, the pronoun I, the first person pronoun.
Uh, he thought, within himself. Himself. There's a pronoun himself.
What shall I do? Because I have no room where to be so my fruits. And he said this will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater and there will I be so my fruits and my good. I mean, I counted 8. There's probably more than that, but just how many times? It's all. And I will say to my soul there's more, so two more and say how much?
Good laid up for many years, take, dine easy, eat and eat, drink and be merry. It's all held with his own self and selfishness. And that's the opposite of a shepherd, isn't it? The shepherd is into the relationship for the sheep, but the the one who is the hireling or the the one here, he's he's into the relationship for me. So we need to judge that and it's not for me to look across.
And judge another brother for what he holds or doesn't hold. This is for me. Am I dealing and holding things for myself or am I holding things before the Lord? Now let look at Habakkuk chapter 3.
Not always wrong to deal to have to do with the first person. There's other verses too that people could draw that draw you to verse 18. Habakkuk 3. Here's the first person pronoun.
I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like hindsight and he will make me to walk upon mine high places, etcetera. And then Galatians one more verse, Galatians chapter 2.
Talks about a couple of eyes there and.
Someone could help us understand that a little better but in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20.
00:45:02
There's two eyes. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, in the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the face of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Just to not to hammer this too hard, but just to realize that the Lord writes, presents these things for me. Not necessarily.
To point it and think about some of my brother, there may be need for that. Like for instance, in First Corinthians 5 when it, it has deals with sin, There may be the need for, for really judging someone who has behaved in such a way to where it's clearly a case that that has affected, uh, his family and whole assembly needs to be dealt with.
I think the word in First Corinthians 5, I'm not sure, but I think in Mr. Darby's avaricious, which has a, a connotation of, you know, grasping, uh, no matter how it's gotten. And then that would be dealt with, but certainly not, uh, what we have in the, this chapter.
I like the little definition that uh the Spirit of God gives in Proverbs chapter 23 of uh, covetousness, verse UH-17, Proverbs 23 and verse 17. Let not thine heart envy sinners, let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. For surely there is an end, there is a future, and thine expectation shall not be cut off.
So there's a warning for each one of us that not to let our hearts envy sinners and what sinners have, why it's all going to come under judgment, every single bit of it. And so if we set our hearts on what sinners have set their hearts on why it's the end is not going to be good. But he says here be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. So if I'm in the fear of God, I'm being governed by the thoughts of the Lord.
I want to be acceptable unto Him. Wherefore we labor that, whether absent or present, we may be accepted of Him. That's what we really want.
But the Sinner, he wants what he wants to. As you have been saying, brother George, it's just to satisfy himself. Just the lusts of the flesh, that's all he wants to satisfy.
Psalm 17 also illustrates that verse 14 men of the world which have their portion in this life, and then verse 15 says, But As for me, I will behold thy face and righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. I mean that that's the thing alone that can satisfy us, isn't it, this Christ?
The Lord brings in the parable here in verses 16 through.
21.
Before the disciples to exercise them. As to the principle, you see the he speaks in the most abstract terms possible. The most extreme case of all is a man who lives without reference to God. He's not even saved. He's not a child of God at all. He ends up in a lost eternity.
The Lord is not teaching that the disciples could lose their salvation, but He's laying down a moral principle that's broad enough to be used in the gospel, as we would reach out to some who lives like that, or to his own disciples who perhaps may be governed by that very principle that this lost soul is governed by.
And the, uh, the object of this man's life was satisfying himself, and he left, uh, the God out of it all together.
And uh.
You'll see here that he didn't have room for two things. He didn't have room for his increased goods, so he had to build barns to get bigger, and he didn't have room for God. And that was his mistake. And the route, the lesson that the Lord is trying to get across to us in this parable, to the disciples, to his own, is that they should not live for increasing possessions on this earth.
And that's the, that's the principle that's behind this. He doesn't exactly speak about what he had in the barns and enumerate those kind of things and use it very broad just to say that this man here had nothing but himself before that his, uh, his soul mentions himself, as you've mentioned, George a dozen times or so. But what you do see is that, uh, a great lesson for us. And the lesson is simple. And that is do not spend your time laying up treasure on earth.
Let me repeat that.
00:50:01
Do not spend your time laying up treasure on earth. That's the main point that he's trying to bring across to his disciples here.
You've missed the purpose and point of life altogether if that's what's going on.
So whether a person has more or a little less than others, that's not the point. The point is, do not spend your time laying up treasure on earth. The object of a disciple is to represent his Lord in the time of his absence, as we've been speaking. And if we get sidetracked into getting after these kinds of things and put our faces and our nose and our object and our life and energy into just amassing things that we think will make us happy, we've been sidetracked by the enemy of our souls from the primary purpose for which we've been left here. That is to represent Christ.
And so he's warning his disciples of this very deceptive thing.
That could climb into our lives unawares and sidetrack us. That's the point that we're getting here.
Something I heard a long time ago that helped me so much. I'd like to say now, I asked a brother one time if he had a house where he lived. It was just conversation. I was possibly thinking about buying a house and he says, well, the Lord has a house and such and such a city and he lets me take care of it. Uh, that was just a very nice way to put it. It really put it in perspective at stewardship. Mr. Jefferson said that to me one time when I met him for the first time, he was a label amongst the Lord, his people, and been off the scene for probably 25 or 30 years. And I miss a young man.
I ran into him at a conference and I said he introduced him. He was, oh, I remember I heard of his name before and I said, well, where do you live? He says, uh, well, the Lord has a house in Kentucky and I'm living in it.
I thought that was good, just the same point you make there.
He exposes the.
The root principle of.
Man in the flesh and what he lives for in verse 19 when he says take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry. That's the character of this world, people who live without reference to God. Plenty of pleasure, plenty to eat and drink, plenty of fun and amusement. And I think that's the end all and be all of life, but not for a disciple, not for the Lord's servants. And so the man's object was all wrong.
And that's brought in here to show us that we can be affected by this, just as he speaks about the leaven of the Pharisees, not saying to anyone of his disciples will become a Pharisee.
In that sense, but he's saying that there is that principle that could be at work amongst the disciples and they have to be on guard of the same. With this principle, we have to be on guard ourselves. That's why he concludes in verse 21 and says so is he that layeth up treasure for himself is not rich toward God. So let me just say that again, the great lesson here is do not spend your time laying up treasure on earth. That's not the object of a disciple.
I suppose that verse 19 is retirement, isn't it?
And how many times have you heard someone say, you know, poor Bob or George or Fred, He got this. He got early retirement and he had a heart attack within the first year and passed away. How often? But you can see the spirit of it here. He's looking forward to this soul. Thou hast much goods laid up for many years and and now we facilitate that in our culture. It's a new thing relatively. Take that easy, drink and be merry. Or the Young's literal translation puts.
My soul be resting. Isn't that retirement? Isn't that what we're looking for? And so pardon say that again. Young's literal raised it as my soul be resting.
And so there is that sense of this deceptive rest. And, uh, should there ever be a time for the believer to kind of what you're saying, Bruce, where we are, we do not labor for the Lord. And if we're not accustomed to that, then, uh, this is really what we're doing. We're either laboring for the Lord or we're laboring for ourselves. It's one of the two. And so you can see it taken out to the extreme in this man. Uh, and as we verse 20, the Lord calls him up.
On that fateful night.
And who shall these things be for which thou hast provided? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
The principle of Jericho that we've had really before us in the address, as we said, you know, scripture has a number of cities that, and places that are typical of this world in different aspects. Egypt's the type of this world and independence of God. Sodom's a type of this world and it's moral corruption. Babylon's the type of this world and it's religious confusion. But Jericho is the type of this world, uh, that, uh, pertains to, uh, the good life, as Robert was saying, and just, uh, pleasing self, you know, it's called the city of the palm trees. The whole idea is.
00:55:28
Take your ease, just have a rest, get on a spiritual holiday, to quote Wayne and that idea. And there is that in our natures that wants to take that and have that little, uh, rest, you know, and it's just not, uh, for the child of God, the city of the palm trees. Who was it? What enemy of the children of Israel took the city of the palm trees? It was that fat king.
From Moab, he went across the land of Israel, the.
River that Jordan there and he took the city of the palm trees because he was interested in ease and relaxation and the good life. And so it it it's it's a it's a real bane to us.
I wonder if a lot of these things don't come in in verse 17. The beginning of it, he thought was in himself.
You know, we have on our laps today God's thoughts about these things. If we're gonna think within ourselves, there's all kind of counselors in this world will tell us all kinds of things. Are you gonna aggrandize yourself and you can have the city of palm trees? Let me show you how to do it. This is out. Step one, Step 2, It's all laid out.
But beginning with thinking about ourselves, if we follow that on through, we find ourselves in, in verse nineteen of those things take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Now if we're gonna take our ease, that means I'm not working for anything.
I'm not gonna do anything. I'm not gonna serve anybody. I'm gonna take my ease. And if it says eat, drink and be merry, it's saying I want everybody to serve me. Now there's the 1St man full blown. That's what we're after in this world, in in nature. We don't wanna serve anybody. We want everybody to serve us. And what a horrible thing for a Christian. That's not why the Lord came here. He came here to be a servant. He came here to give himself on the cross. He walked his life in service for others.
Can we fall into this breadth? It's a sad thing, though we can.
And I was thinking too, in verse 15, nobody read that in the new translation. It's a little, uh, little bit more condemning there. He says instead of a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth, it says it is not because a man is in abundance that his life is in his possession.
Now think about that a minute. You don't have to have a lot of things. You can be sitting somewhere else watching a brother drive a nice car or live in a nice house, and you can be coveting that. You don't have to have a lot to fall into this problem.
It's not because a man is in abundance that his life is in his possessions. You have a little kid playing with his his brother on the floor and he's saying that's mine. He's gonna have hardly anything but he wants more. He wants what his brother has. And that's the principle of this whole thing. It's it's so anti Christian and yet we find in our own hearts, we find ourselves falling into it. May the Lord help us brethren. Another thing too, when the Lord says this night thy soul shall be required of thee.
You see, he thought he had many years and he said, you know, laid up for many years, but we don't have no lease on life as you we all know. But, uh, I think the lesson here is that time is lent to us and we don't know how long much we have been given to us. Every one of us has had our hand open and God has put into our hands time and it's been lent to us. What am I doing with it? This man was just going to try to build bigger and better barns to amass more and more possessions.
But that's not what a disciple of Christ should be doing. And so each one of us need to be exercised about what we're doing with what has been put into our hands, because our life is going to be required of us too, before God. We have to give an account as to what we did with what the Lord put in our hand.
Man, I used to work with uh.
Several years ago I talked to a coworker of his and and he said, Did you hear about Jorge?
Uh, no. What? What's going on? He said. Well, he retired, and the day after he retired, he got a cerebral hemorrhage and died three days later.
01:00:01
You know, I don't know where Jorge is, I don't know, umm, but it is certainly very powerful as we see this expression, thou fool. I was struck, uh, reading some time ago with a story of Nabel.
And first Samuel 25 and, and it's a real, it's a real picture to us that can be used very vividly in the gospel. Here's a man that, uh, builds things. And when David comes.
For what's required with, with a message of peace, he rejects it and he dies with a heart of stone. Solemn thou fool. Nabel means fool. Same word as in Psalm 14. I think it's Psalm 53. The fool has said in his heart there's no God or no God. It does not reference things with God in view. So it's a solemn thing. But now that that's, that's an unbeliever. Now you take it to a believer like our brother was mentioning.
Older brother, one time when I was a young man threw me aside and you know, he said, when I was young, I spent a lot of my energy building my business and I, I didn't spend the time over the word and, and in the ministry. I built my business, I got my business going. And as I, as I and I raised my family and I was really occupied in those things and I put my full heart to it, but I didn't spend the time in the word in the ministry. And now that I'm older.
I find my mind's not working as as much as I'd like it to, doesn't retain the things I'm not able to retain all that I read and I I just feel like played the fool.
All right, well, now I'm a young person and, and I, and I have a family and, you know, I'm anxious about this. I, I, I, I'm responsible to provide for them. And you know, I, I'm, I worry about that not being able to. I mean, isn't that what's taken up next? You know, I mean, uh, this is pretty hard. It's pretty hard to transfer to something like this, you know?
I mean, he's talking about taking care of you. And, uh, you can just see the Lord anticipating the disciples saying, but Lord, we've got to make some preparations, don't we? We, we, we have to have a little of this life. Uh, you know, this world is good and so on, don't we? And so he comes right in and says, don't make that the object of your life. And now he seeks in these next series of verses to set them free from, from worry.
Worry about the future.
You know, the enemy would like to distract us again from being what we should be in the time of his absence as bright and shining witnesses. And that is to get us worried about the future, worried about 1000 things, not just maybe looking after our family. There could be anything. And some of us are worried about our business and some of us are worried about if we're gonna get married. And some of us are worried about.
Whatever and, uh, we can get worried about our health maybe and, and we can get so worked up and so sidetracked thinking about those things that we spend our time in those things and we get sidetracked from the real issue. That should characterize a servant and a witness of Christ. So he's going to deal with that next. We don't have any more time now, but that's the thought here next. And that is to set them free from worry.
And anxiety, I understand that the uh, the word in verse 29 neither be of doubtful mind should be neither live in anxiety.
Neither live in anxiety.
You know, we can spend most of our time furthering, as Wayne said, uh, use up a lot of calories thinking about worrying about tomorrow when when tomorrow comes. It seems to work itself out.
So we have to be taught by experience to trust the Lord, you know, and it takes some time to learn how to trust the Lord. An old expression, you've probably heard this, it's written on our fridge for, not for any haphazard reason either, but it's written in our fridge that I look at every morning and it says if you worry, you do not trust, but if you trust, you do not worry. And I think that's helpful.
Just trust the Lord, you know, having your own business like some of us do have I, it's different than perhaps having, uh, being on a set salary working for a big corporation and, uh, you have to every day, just every week, just say, well, hope the Lord is gonna help us this week and we're gonna make the sales. We're gonna do whatever we have to do to make ends meet. The time Friday comes and you roll up the, the desk and you go home. And somehow he made it work week after week after week. You think I learned to trust him? But still Monday morning.
01:05:12
Now look at that fridge and I remember that little expression. If you worry, you do not trust, but if you trust, you do not worry. And so the great lesson is to learn to trust the Lord. Now I realize those who work for corporations and so on that have the, the, the, the guaranteed salaries and all this kind of stuff, we'll learn the same lesson that we seek who have our own businesses have to learn. You'll just learn it in a different way. The Lord has a school that's made for every one of us. And, uh, so we're all going to learn this lesson, but I see.
That it is a slow process and we have to learn by experience to trust the Lord and bit by bit we learn to let go and do not worry and just trust Him for the future. And that's what He wanted his disciples to be, to be completely free and trusting so they could be free to be busy in His service and His vineyard as responsible witnesses. That's what I covered from my own soul. I used that word covet and and the scriptural sense.
What about the ads that, how come he doesn't bring the Ant in here? He just, uh, kind of does the opposite of this, doesn't he? You know, the Raven, he just, he just trusts, you know, the day the seed is gonna be there or, and, uh, the Lilly, it just, uh, just, uh, trust the nourishment. It's gonna be there. But in Proverbs he talks about the ACT too. So I'm gonna just say that and give us because the Ant he's storing up for the winter. So there's both principles.
And and I just wonder why didn't bring that in.
It's the object. It's the object if your whole aim and focus is story out. I mean, I think we all have to use little wisdom and Bruce stops his business and he has nothing.
That's what he's got, but if he spent his entire business building up a retirement fund, he could drop dead the day before he gets it. So there's there is wisdom there. Again, we started with the balance. Where is your focus? It has to be upon Christ, not upon.
The world.
Well, maybe we can talk a little more about that because we just put our nose into this, uh, this subject of worry and there's much more we can say on it, I'm sure. So when we come back to it tomorrow, we can follow up from there.
We see #59 in the back.
#59 in the afternoon.
Not at all.